The Unforgettable
by The Name Is Not Zippy
Summary: Years after their first date, Beast Boy and Raven pass the time by recounting the most bizarre, outlandish, and unexpected moments of their relationship, before and after they became lovers. A request-fic anthology, BBRae. Rated T for violence and adult themes, as always. Requests are still open, feel free to submit!
1. Prologue

***A/N* I'm back... again. Yeah, not much of a break, huh? With all this free time before college starts, I feel like I'm stagnating a little, so... why not write some more? This is a request-fic, and I encourage anyone out there who wants to see me write something BBRae-ish to submit something. The only rules being that the story can't change anything about the characters, it has to be an idea that will fit into a maximum of three chapters, and let it be known that explicit sexual content, OC's, or crossovers are _highly _unlikely to make the cut unless the idea is crafted well enough. But please, don't let these rules intimidate you, I'll be happy to discuss any idea as long as you're willing to be flexible about the above. Enjoy! *A/N***

Beast Boy watched a moth flutter around the outdoor light, bouncing off of the surface again and again as though it was trying to destroy it, to no avail. He was seated quite comfortably out on the back patio, the crisp early fall air being a welcome change for the changeling. He didn't bother turning around when he heard the door behind him open up.

"There you are."

Raven placed a drink in his hand and sat herself down in the chair opposite him, pulling her hood up to ward off the sudden drop in temperature.

"What's this?" Beast Boy asked, examining the amber liquid in his glass.

"Frog slime, poison, acid… who knows?" Raven replied.

Beast Boy took a moment to think, but ultimately gave in.

"Alright, you got me. Which Argento flick is that from?"

"Opera." Raven replied, giving a tiny smirk of satisfaction. "You're 0 for 4 so far."

Beast Boy sighed.

"Where're the others?"

"I think they went out to eat."

"Without us?"

"I'm pretty sure it was a steakhouse or something."

"So what are we supposed to do for dinner?"

Raven shrugged. "We've got stuff in the fridge. Are you hungry now?"

"Not really."

The two sat in silence for a moment, Beast Boy occasionally sipping his drink.

"We've come a long way, haven't we?" he said.

"What?"

"I mean, us. The two of us." He clarified.

"Oh." Raven paused for a moment. "Yeah, I guess we have. What got you thinking about that?"

"Nothing really, I was just daydreaming, and it all came flooding back." Beast Boy turned to Raven. "I still remember the first time you said you loved me." He said.

"I still remember your vacant expression afterword." Raven replied.

"Or how about the time we did the Mind-Meld?" Beast Boy said, staring wistfully into the night sky.

"Of course."

Beast Boy waggled his brows. "Or when we reached third base?"

"I'm still trying to forget that." Raven said flatly after a short scoff.

Beast Boy chuckled darkly before relaxing back into his chair and sighing.

"What would you say was our first 'moment?'" he inquired curiously.

"Our first what?"

"You know, 'moment.' Like, you know, a peek into the future of our relationship before we actually started it."

Raven thought for a moment. "Well, that really depends. You were pretty oblivious for a while. I'd say the first time _I _ever felt anything for you came after the whole museum incident."

Beast Boy furrowed his brow in thought. "Museum..?" Then it clicked, and his face lit up.

"Oh _yeah_!How could I forget that?"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, you certainly won't let me forget."

"Yeah, it was late, and we got called to stop a robbery…"


	2. Three Ways To Screw Up: Part 1

***A/N* Our first request comes from tsk91, a supernatural comedy taking place a few months before the events of Blood Bonding. This one was quite fun to write, and I look forward to future chapters. *A/N***

The Jump City Museum of History had a record amount of guests visit its exhibits that Tuesday. Three hours after closing time. The entrance was completely swarmed with people, journalists snapping as many pictures as they could before the police inevitably pushed them back, and passerby pressed against the yellow crime tape and craned their necks to see what had happened inside.

Inside, three men dressed in solid black were being dragged out of the Arabic Treasures exhibit by some heavily built police officers. The three inexperienced criminals had crept into the museum through the skylight after hours, in an attempt to steal whatever ancient artifacts they could get their hands on. They unwittingly triggered the silent alarm, and the Teen Titans rushed to the building. The youngest of the three, upon seeing the Titans, tossed himself onto the ground and began weeping, claiming 'they made him do it' and begged for mercy. The other two thieves relented almost just as easily.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't touch anything, honest! _Please _don't tell my Dad!" The youngest of the group blubbered as he was escorted away by the police.

"Is that all of them?" A sergeant asked Robin.

"Yes sir, we've swept the rest of the Museum." Robin replied professionally.

"Okay, Lt. Wynorski will be waiting outside for the full report. Thanks again, kids." The cop replied, before hurrying outside to deal with the growing crowd.

Beast Boy beamed and wiped his perfectly dry brow.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm dripping with sweat!" he jested, eliciting laughter from his teammates, sans Raven.

"Did you see the first guy? I almost felt bad for the poor sucker." Cyborg added.

"I guess this must have been his first time." Robin declared. "He should have started smaller."

"Maybe with church mice." Beast Boy quipped, and he was once again graced with a few laughs from everyone but Raven.

"Should we now speak with the Lieutenant?" Starfire suggested.

"Yeah, we shouldn't keep him waiting." Robin said.

Beast Boy checked his watch. "Hope it doesn't take too long, we still got time for some Game Station."

Raven turned to him. "Yes, God forbid your remarkably short attention span be spared from bright, flashing colors for a few minutes. I'd worry about your brain cells, but you've burned them all away, haven't you?"

Beast Boy's mood deflated moments after hearing Raven's icy reply, and he stopped walking with his teammates long enough for them to gain considerable distance from them.

"You coming, Beastie?"

Beast Boy frowned. "Gimme a minute."

The other Titans looked at the changeling, exchanged confused looks, but shrugged it off and exited the exhibit to talk with the police. Beast Boy checked to make sure that they were out of range before he cursed out loud.

"Every time…" he spat, kicking a sign as he sat down on the dais of the main exhibit.

Beast Boy was growing tired of Raven's insults. It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, she always had some snide comment to burst his bubble with. Even when he did something that she thought she would appreciate, she treated him like a nuisance. It wasn't as though he wanted her to like him, although that would be nice, he just wanted to be shown a little bit of respect for once.

Hearing Raven talk down to him was nothing new, and that was precisely the problem. This had gone on for too long, and his patience was wearing thin. He had come very close to letting loose and giving Raven a long overdue verbal lashing, but what would that do in the long run? His teammates would just say "Let it go, it's Raven." And she would go right back to treating him like gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

While pouting, he glanced at the sign he had kicked over.

(This millennia old Persian vessel was found during an excavation southwest of Isfahan. The inscriptions tell of a powerful genie who resides within the vessel, awaiting the-)

"Yeah, right." Beast Boy snorted, turning to look in the shattered glass case the sign spoke of. An ornate vase sat upon a stand, with a rounded bottom and a long, narrow spout. Some words traced the bottom, written in what Beast Boy assumed was Persian, and the vase was in remarkably good condition for being thousands of years old.

Beast Boy couldn't help but daydream a little about having a genie for himself. What would he use his three wishes for? He could think of a few petty ideas, but only one stuck out in his mind as something that would actually make him feel better at the time.

"Yeah, if life was like a Disney movie." Beast Boy said finally, moving to stand up. Forgetting that he was seated on a dais, the sudden pull of gravity on the fronts of his feet made him loose his balance. Pinwheeling his arms around, he stumbled backwards and landed painfully on his rear, his back slamming into the case where the Persian vessel sat. The vase rolled onto its side and slipped off of the stand.

"Oh, _crap!_" Beast Boy shouted, moving to catch the vase. It landed safely in his gloved hands with a soft thud. The changeling sighed with relief.

"Phew, that would have left a dent in my wallet." He moved to place the vessel back on the stand where it belonged. Making sure it was exactly the way it was before, he sighed, and turned to leave.

He slowed to a halt when he heard a faint rattling noise. Turning back to the vessel, he found it quaking on its stand. Glancing around quickly to make sure nothing else was rattling, Beast Boy went over to the vessel and put his hands on it to stop. It was suddenly very warm to the touch. Feeling it vibrate in his hands, he struggled to hold it still. A faint glow began funneling out of the narrow end of the vase, and it steadily grew until it was blinding to look at.

All at once, there was an explosion of noise and color, and Beast Boy was sent flying backwards. Skidding on his back, he stopped himself to look up at what was going on. A tremendous cloud of many colors was swirling from the vessel. He would have admired the beauty if he wasn't so terrified.

All at once, the formless vortex took shape in midair, into a multicolored, dazzling humanoid being. Bald, with large earrings and a highly muscular countenance, the being spread its arms and let out a thunderous bellow.

"_Behold the glory of Ikraam the Insurmountable!" _The being's voice echoed through the airy chamber and made other exhibits tremble with its might.

Beast Boy made a feeble moan before he began walking backwards toward the exit. The being's pupil-less eyes fell upon him, and it pointed a finger the size of a log in his direction.

"_It was you, was it not? You called me from my slumber!_" the being boomed.

"S-sorry." Beast Boy squeaked weakly.

The being crossed its arms, and to Beast Boy's unending shock, bowed humbly.

"_Master… how shall I be of service?_"

"Master?" Beast Boy cried, a little louder than he meant to.

"_Of course. I am a Djinn, and you have called me from my vessel. Enlighten me, Master, what are your three wishes?_"

Beast Boy's jaw hit the floor. "Waitwaitwait, three wishes? You…you're not saying…"

"_With my power, I can make any wish of yours come true, Master, be it wealth, intelligence, status, or more._"

Beast Boy, still not exactly grasping the situation, could barely respond. "Anything..?"

"_There are four requests that cannot be granted. I cannot take anyone's life, nor can I bring it back. I cannot force one to love another. And I cannot grant more than three requests. These are crimes most foul, and I shan't allow them. Beyond these, you have the universe at your fingertips, Master. _"

"Wow, this _is _like a Disney movie." Beast Boy had to pause to think. "I mean, anything I want… where do I even start? And how do I know you aren't just some hologram or alien trying to brainwash me?"

The Djinn threw his head back and laughed uproariously, shaking the exhibits with sheer volume.

"_I understand your skepticism, Master. Allow me to authenticate myself._"

The Djinn raised his hands into the air and brought them together, a shower of golden sparks flying from the point of impact in a rainbow-shaped arc. As they fell from the air, Beast Boy realized that they weren't merely sparks; they were golden coins. They landed with a noisy pattering onto the ground, and Beast Boy picked one up to examine.

"This is solid gold, isn't it?" he said, staring at the small chunk of precious metal in the center of his palm.

"_What would you like it to be? Silver?_"

The coin flashed into a silver color.

"_Ivory?_"

The coin switched into the appropriate white color.

"_Sapphire?_"

The coin became a small royal blue jewel.

"_Or perhaps if it had a mind of its own?_"

The gem twitched and sprouted four arachnid-like legs and scuttled off of his hand with a startled squeak.

Beast Boy couldn't believe what he was seeing. This…was too good to be true. Anything he wanted could be given to him, all he had to do was ask. He could turn himself back to a normal color, or become the hero of the entire world, give himself the knowledge to cure any disease, or… no, no…those were too big to start off with. Then what _could _he start off with?

"Um… I have a friend…at least, I think she's my friend, who always insults me. It started off as no big deal, but it's starting to really hurt. I want it to stop."

The Djinn grinned and crossed his arms.

"_Ah, yes. This is a wish I can grant quite easily._"

"You mean it?" Beast Boy said incredulously.

"_Master, have you no faith in Ikraam the Insurmountable?_" The Djinn exclaimed proudly. "_Simply say the word, and it shall be done!_"

Beast Boy gulped. Was he sure about this? It seemed like an easy way to start off. No one would really get hurt if it backfired. Maybe. He would just have to be very specific.

Clearing his throat nervously, he spoke as clearly as he could to the titan in front of him.

"Ikraam, I wish that Raven of Azarath would stop insulting me. But don't hurt her in any way."

The Djinn beamed and spread his arms.

"_Your wish is my command, Master." _He said, and clapped his enormous hands together once again. A wave of energy pulsed through the room, making Beast Boy's hair stand on end. The Djinn crossed his arms and nodded.

"_Your wish has been granted, Master._" The Djinn declared.

Beast Boy looked around and raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"_As I said, it was a simple request, Master._"

"Okay… um, listen, do I have to make all my wishes right now?"

"_You may take all the time you need, Master. If you need to leave my vessel here, so be it; simply call and I will come._"

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head. "Wait, how can you- oh, right. All powerful being. Well… you promise you'll come back?"

The Djinn bowed once more. "_Master, it would be sacrilege if I denied my current beholder my presence at any time. Such is the law of The Djinn._"

"BEAST BOY!" came a call from the museum foyer. Beast Boy spun about to face the entrance, then turned back to his supernatural servant.

"Go. We'll talk later."

The Djinn gave one last bow before he vanished into a wisp of multicolored smoke. Beast Boy turned to find his teammates standing impatiently in the entryway.

"What've you been doing in here?" Robin demanded, as Beast Boy came towards the team.

Beast Boy's excuse archive burst open as he searched for a suitable one for the situation. Just something either believable enough or shocking enough to shut Robin up.

"Talking." He said.

"To who?"

"Him." Beast Boy pointed to a statue of a saber-toothed tiger snarling at no one in particular. Beast Boy brushed past his teammates, taking a moment to brashly waggle his brows at Raven, who gave him a look of both confusion and annoyance. He marched out the front doors as the others looked on in astonishment.

"Should we-" Cyborg began.

"Forget it. He was probably just avoiding having to talk to the cops." Robin concluded dismissively.

The others moved to leave, Starfire pausing a moment to glance at the statue suspiciously before exiting as well.

***A/N* Let me tell you that my main mission during this segment of the anthology is to not make the theme too much like Aladdin. Granted, that film is a masterpiece, but I can't sound like I'm ripping it off, can I? Stay tuned! *A/N***


	3. Three Ways To Screw Up: Part 2

The next day began normally enough, Cyborg appearing in the kitchen to cook the team breakfast, Robin heading to the gym for a quick work-out, Starfire prettying herself up in her bathroom.

Beast Boy cautiously hid behind his door, managing to open it just a crack. Using one eye only, he peered through the sliver of sight he allowed himself, staring at Raven's door.

He was nervous, there was no denying it. If this whole genie thing turned out to be some sort of elaborate hoax, and there was still a part of him that believed that assumption, he was in for a world of trouble. The other part of him was extremely excited to try this out. Even if this whole scenario was a lie, it would still be satisfying to give Raven a taste of her own medicine.

He flinched when her door opened and she glided out of her room, fully cloaked and as reclusive as ever. He gulped. Now or never.

He exited his room and began jogging in the opposite direction. Passing Raven, he took care to bump shoulders with her.

"Watch it." Raven snapped flatly.

Beast Boy turned to face her and scowled. "Why don't _you _look where you're going for once." He paused before tacking on the next jab. "Bird-brain."

Raven whirled around to glare dangerously at the changeling.

"You got a death wish, mo-"

Raven couldn't complete her retort, as the words she had ready froze in her throat. She made a weak swallowing noise before coughing once and putting a hand over her mouth.

"Problem?" Beast Boy asked innocently.

"Wha-I…no. I'm fine." Raven replied, unable to hide a small blush on her face before turning and striding out of sight.

Beast Boy grinned from ear to ear. It worked. It actually worked. She couldn't talk bad about him. Literally.

With a new spring in his step, he moved to follow Raven into the common room. Reaching the steps, he leapt down them, landing and posing elaborately.

"You seem happy." Cyborg said, amused, and a bit perturbed that his green friend was this energetic so early in the morning.

"You have no idea." Beast Boy replied cheerfully. He glanced over at the couch, and found Raven in the center with her nose buried in a lengthy novel. Smirking, he brazenly strode over to the back of the couch and swung himself over onto the cushions, landing noisily next to the sorceress.

"Whatcha reading?" he inquired, leaning in carefully to glance at the text.

"Why do you care?" came the irate reply.

"Oh, nothing. Just wondering if it was mind-meltingly boring like the last one." He retracted his neck when he saw that he touched another nerve.

"It's not like you can-"

Raven halted mid-insult and made a faint gagging noise, hiding her mouth behind her hand once again.

"You alright, Rae?" Cyborg asked, concerned. Raven gave a frustrated sigh and looked back to her novel.

"I'm _fine._" She retorted defensively.

"Having trouble getting your words out?" Beast Boy wheedled.

"Back off, cr-" Raven began, but finished with another feeble croak and a hand over her mouth.

He couldn't take it anymore, Beast Boy crumpled to the floor and let out a stream of laughter.

"B, cut it out." Cyborg ordered sharply before turning his attention back to Raven.

"Raven, you need a lozenge or something?"

"I said I was FINE!" Raven snapped, throwing her novel down between her legs before making a quick exit from the room past Starfire, fresh from her morning beautification.

"Friend Raven seems upset." Starfire noted worriedly after a moment. "Has something out of the normal happened?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Think she might have some sort of throat thing going on. She couldn't talk right."

Starfire nodded empathetically. "How sad." She then noticed Beast Boy climbing back onto the couch, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Friend Beast Boy..?" she began, not entirely sure what to ask him.

"Broccoli-head over here thought that it was hilarious." Cyborg added sternly, shooting the changeling a glare.

"No, no… it wasn't that…just…oh my _God, _this is too perfect!" Beast Boy said, flopping down onto the couch with the weight of his satisfaction.

Starfire and Cyborg exchanged confused looks, but found nothing else to say at the moment and went back to what they were doing. Cyborg left to return the novel to Raven.

Morning came and went, the Titans receiving no calls and left to their own devices. Cyborg and Beast Boy played a few rounds of Android Apocalypse on the Game Station, Beast Boy actually putting up much more of a fight this time around, one of their matches ending in a time-out victory in his favor.

As Beast Boy rubbed this victory in Cyborg's face, Raven reappeared in the common room silently. Refusing to sit anywhere near the changeling, she planted herself on the stairs and resumed her novel there.

Unfortunately, Cyborg noticed her.

"Hey. You doin' alright?" he inquired.

Raven made no response other than a brief icy stare.

"Cleared up the frog in your throat, Rae-Rae?" Beast Boy jeered.

Raven denied Beast Boy eye contact.

"Speechless, I see. I guess what goes around comes around, huh?"

Cyborg halted his preparations for the next electronic match to jostle Beast Boy's arm.

"Will you quit acting like that? It's seriously starting to freak me out." Cyborg demanded.

"Acting like what?" Beast Boy replied, feigning innocence poorly.

"Like you just won the lottery. Why is Raven getting a throat bug so exciting to you anyway?"

Beast Boy turned back to the television with a smug grin.

"You see, my metal muchacho, there's a little something I like to call 'poetic justice' that was long overdue around here. I think it's safe to say that things between me and Raven are going to be a little different around here, starting today. Ain't that right, Ra-"

As Beast Boy turned to look at Raven, he was unaware that she had slowly advanced towards him during his speech, and he yelped when she clubbed him upside the head with her heavy novel. Knocking him onto his side, she levitated him into the air and hurled him into the adjoining hallway. Whirling through the air, he slammed into the floor and skidded painfully to a halt after sliding a few feet backwards into the dark corridor. Before he could even lift his head, he found the furious sorceress hovering directly over him, eyes white with anger. She seized his collar and bodily hoisted him into a sitting position so his face was centimeters from hers.

"I don't know what you did to make my voice like this, but if you think it gives you some kind of power over me, I'll see to it that you spend _every, waking, moment_ in agony until you fix it. This is your only warning." She hissed.

She issued this threat in a barely audible murmur, but the venom in her voice was more potent than anything Beast Boy had ever heard. She finished by shoving him back onto the floor, his head colliding with the hard surface again. She whirled about and disappeared from sight.

Beast Boy gingerly sat up, his head swimming as he saw tiny lights sparkling in his field of vision. Giving his head a good shake, he got to his feet and crossed his arms.

"How did she know..?" he wondered out loud. Well, at this rate, there was no point in heading back to the common room, since Raven sounded like a volcano on the verge of eruption, and even if she couldn't insult him, she would be more than happy to send him flying through a window if he so much as breathed too loud. How could he have been stupid enough to forget to tell Ikraam to keep her from hurting him, too? Maybe he could add it on without wasting another wish.

Walking carefully as to avoid all of the blood rushing to his head, he entered his cluttered room and cleared his throat.

"Uh… Ikraam?" he called out softly. "I…uh…summon you…I guess."

He was greeted with silence. Huffing in annoyance, he tried again, this time with more volume.

"Ikraam, your…Master is calling you!" he ordered, still uncomfortable with using that word.

The silence that followed made the changeling ball up his fists with frustration.

"Hey, DUDE?! It would be really, really, _really _awesome if you showed up alrea-"

The room shook with a tremendous seismic burst, scattering the clothes, comic books, and food wrappers littering the floor all over the room, the lighter of these fluttering up near the ceiling. A colorful cloud osmosed into view, and grew until it touched both the floor and the ceiling. The smoke dispersed, revealing the muscular, radiant entity from the Museum.

"_Master, I apologize for my lack of punctuality, it took me several moments to find you._" The Djinn boomed, crossing his arms as usual.

Beast Boy smashed a finger to his lips hastily. "SHUSH! Keep your voice down, Jafar! What are you trying to do, wake up the entire city?!"

The genie gave his Master an offended look, but lowered his voice anyway.

"_Master, please. As your devoted servant, I ask you to at least grace me with my proper title._" He said, upset.

"Look, I'm sorry, Ikraam. It's just that I'm trying to keep you a secret. I-I didn't mean it." Beast Boy apologized partly because he felt guilty for hurting his feelings, and also because he was worried that this supremely proud and powerful being would turn on him and reduce him to ash. But he felt relief when the genie gave him a smile.

"_No bad blood, Master._" He said, before resuming his regal stoicism. "_Now, please Master, what can I do for you?_"

"Right, about that… my first wish, could I, like, add something on to it?" Beast Boy's hopeful expression soured when the Djinn slowly shook his head.

"_A thousand pardons, Master, but I am afraid that is not possible. You see, once I have granted a wish, it cannot be altered or revoked._"

"Come on, Dude! Just this once? Help a guy out!" Beast Boy pleaded.

"_I am sorry Master, but this has been the law for eons. If you so desperately want to change your first wish, you could use your second wish to do so. That is the only other option, unfortunately._"

Beast Boy groaned and knocked his fist against his own head a few times.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he said in rhythm with his strikes. He then put his hands on his hips and stared down at the floor. What could he do to make this situation better? And did he really want to use up his second wish to do so?

"Look… I know you can't make anyone love anybody else, but… could you at least make Raven _like_ me? Like as a friend, you know, respect me?"

The Djinn gave a low "Hmmmm…" and pondered for a moment.

"_This could be difficult, Master. The girl you speak of has unholy origins, does she not?_"

"Well, yeah, but she's nothing like a demon."

"_I understand that, but this is where complications arise. You see, I can alter the physical traits of any being with little effort. But changing the way a denizen of darkness thinks is next to impossible._"

"But Raven's only _half _demon, right? That shouldn't be too hard, should it?" Beast Boy asked insistently.

"_Even then, the process could take decades, and it would be painful and exhausting for her and myself._"

Beast Boy grabbed his hair and bellowed in frustration.

"It's not fair!" he yelled.

The Djinn looked upon his Master with pity. He felt shame that he couldn't grant him a wish that was both fair and so greatly desired.

"_I see how much you wish for her respect. This is what you want with all your heart?_"

Beast Boy looked up at his magnificent friend.

"It's all I've ever wanted. All these years I've tried to get her to like me, or at least respect me as a teammate. But, she just never seems to want anything to do with me. I mean, I know I can be kind of annoying, but… even when I'm trying my hardest…nothing."

Beast Boy lowered his head in dismay. "I just don't get it. Is it me?" he finished, defeated.

The Djinn took a deep breath.

"_If you desire this so badly, I have an option that might work._"

Beast Boy looked up sharply. "Say what?"

"_There is a way to make this girl like you. But it has many complications._"

Beast Boy leapt with excitement. "Are you serious? Then what are you waiting for, Dude? Do it!"

"_Master, I must insist that if _this_ is done, there will be-_"

"Ikraam, I wish for you to do it!" Beast Boy commanded.

The Djinn moved to protest, but lowered his hand after a while.

"_Your wish is my command, Master._" Ikraam said gravely. He then raised his mighty hands into the air and brought them together. There was a sharp crack, like a live branch being broken in two. The genie then vanished in a wisp of smoke.

Beast Boy eagerly glanced around, and found his room just as cluttered as usual, and he stood in solitude. Confused, he hurried to his door and poked his head outdoors. There he saw the blue hooded robe he knew so well. Raven's back was facing him, and she turned to investigate the noise.

Her face held a look of confusion, but it slowly turned into a smile at the sight of Beast Boy.

"Hi!" she chirped, in a jarringly un-Raven tone. She approached Beast Boy, sizing him up as though she had never seen him before.

"My name is Raven! What's yours?" she inquired, tilting her head with curiosity.

Beast Boy, reeling with shock, noticed small differences in Raven's appearance as well as her manner. Her skin was a touch darker, less gray and more flesh colored, as though she had somehow gotten tan. Her hair was a good deal shorter than normal, giving her a tomboyish look, and she had small pearl earrings on.

Raven allowed silence for only a few moments before speaking up again.

"Um… I don't mean to be rude…but how come your skin is green?"

"Raven, come on, quit acting weird, it's me, Beast Boy." The changeling insisted.

"Beast Boy? I like that name, it's all rebellious!" Raven said, playfully punching Beast Boy in the shoulder. She then paused and gave him a look her had never seen before.

"Say, 'Beast Boy,' anybody ever tell you that you're kinda cute?" she said with a blush, ruffling his hair. Beast Boy stepped back, alarmed at this sudden act of affection. What had Ikraam done to her? He didn't ask him to change her entirely!

"Who are you talking to?"

Beast Boy turned and nearly fainted. There stood Raven, hood up and novel in hand, looking as distant as she ever did.

"Oh, look! We've got the same outfit!" The other Raven exclaimed, jumping from behind Beast Boy. "Hiya! My name's Raven!"

Raven let her book slip from her hand and clatter to the floor. Astonished, she looked from Beast Boy, to her doppelganger, then back to Beast Boy.

"What. Did. You. DO?" she growled.

"Oh, boy."


	4. Three Ways To Screw Up: Finale

***A/N* This one was tricky, to say the least. I have to admit that I condensing this story to only three chapters has left the finale a little bulky, but hopefully it was worth the week-long wait. I also tried to go for a more heart-warming tone at the end instead of straight comedy. That's how I roll. Enjoy, especially you, tsk. *A/N***

"Wow, this place is super big! Where's the hot tub?"

The Other Raven's playful jokes went unnoticed as she was examined carefully by Cyborg, who was just as dumbfounded by her appearance as the other four teens were.

"Wait, rewind a bit, _where _did you say she came from?" Robin questioned, trying to wrap his head around just what in the world was going on.

"I don't know." Raven said shortly. "I turn down the hall, and she's talking to Beast Boy."

"And Beast Boy, you don't know where she came from either?" Robin turned to the changeling.

"Nope." Beast Boy said, the lie barely escaping his lips.

"OW!" The Other Raven squealed. Cyborg had just inserted a small syringe into her forearm. "Come on, man, that hurt!" she pouted.

"Sorry… I just need to run a couple tests." Cyborg said, trying to sound normal and failing miserably at it. He extracted a small amount of blood and put it in a small vial.

"Hey, Beastie, run this to the lab upstairs, and pour it into the machine marked BAAC 1-4. Green nozzle."

Beast Boy hastily snatched the vial from his friend's hand and hurried away.

Starfire knelt down to The Other Raven's level and stared into her face for a few moments before speaking up.

"Friend Raven, do you recognize me? My name is Starfire. We are dearest friends, are we not?"

The Other Raven giggled girlishly. "What country are you from? I like your accent. You're super pretty too." She then took a quick look around and pulled Starfire in close to her, so she could whisper in her ear.

"Just between us, that green boy with the ears? Can you spell S-T-U-D?" she whispered noisily, loud enough for Cyborg to nearly drop the equipment he was handling.

Starfire retracted slowly, issued a polite reply, and hurried back to her other two friends.

"This Raven is most unusual." She whispered.

"How did he do it?" Raven said to herself.

"How did who do what?" Robin inquired.

Raven beckoned her friends closer to her and issued her reply in a barely audible voice.

"Last night, I sensed a sudden burst of powerful magic after the Museum heist. This morning, I couldn't control my own voice, and now, another me appears. Beast Boy was acting more…sure of himself… this morning, like he already knew about it."

"Hold on, you're not suggesting that Beast Boy knows magic, are you?" Robin retorted disbelievingly.

"I'm not saying that _he_ does, but I definitely sensed magic, and from the way he was acting, I know he has something to do with it." Raven insisted.

"Look, you need evidence to support your claim, Raven. I highly doubt that-"

Raven silenced her leader with a single raised finger and cleared her throat.

"Hang on. Robin, say something bad about Beast Boy."

"What? Why?" he demanded.

"Just do it!" she snapped.

Robin paused, exhaled in annoyance, and spat out a phrase as quick as possible.

"Beast-Boy-is-stupid, there." He said.

"Now, watch me try to say it." Raven said. "Beast Boy is st-" she ended the phrase with another faint gag.

"There! You see? I physically can't insult him! I can't even write anything bad about him, I tried that out. My pencil snapped in two."

Robin and Starfire traded concerned looks as Beast Boy re-entered the room, holding the empty vial.

"I put it in. It said that she's Raven." He said quickly.

"Duh! I've always been Raven!" The Other Raven replied. "That's what Daddy named me!"

The Real Raven turned sharply to face her doppelganger.

"Daddy..?" she echoed.

"Mmm-hmm! Why, would you prefer if I called him Pops?"

The Real Raven approached her double swiftly.

"Do you even know who your Father is?" she said tartly.

The Other Raven lost her smile. "You're starting to freak me out. You keep acting like you know everything about me." She narrowed her eyes as a thought crossed her mind. "Come to think of it… how do you even know how I dress?"

She then gave a soft gasp and placed a hand on her mouth. "Have…have you been stalking me?"

"_No._" Raven defended. "I know so much about you because-"

She couldn't complete her sentence before Cyborg abruptly swept her aside.

"I think we need to have a little talk." He said quickly, hurrying over to the others with Raven's arm in tow.

"What was that about?" Raven said after they were out of earshot, swatting Cyborg's hand away cantankerously.

"Cool your jets, Raven. I think I know what's going on here." Cyborg said.

"You do?" Robin asked.

"Well, this is just a theory, but judging from the data we got back on the DNA machine and the fact that hers and our Raven's body structures are nearly one hundred percent identical, and the fact that they act _nothing_ alike… I think this is a Raven from a different dimension."

Starfire looked to Raven. "Friend Raven, you are the only one in the vicinity that can open portals to alternate dimensions. Is this your doing?" she inquired lightly.

"You honestly think I would bring another me into our dimension? Especially one as irritating as her?" Raven said flatly.

"It might have been an accident. Things like this have happened before, you know." Robin rebutted.

"Yes, but taking something from another dimension isn't the type of thing that would happen by accident. It's a process, you need heavy concentration and extremely potent magic." came the retort.

"So, what are you saying? You think someone else did this? Who?" Cyborg queried.

Raven shifted her gaze to the only teammate silent at the moment. The others turned to look at Beast Boy as well, staring vacantly at The Other Raven as she flashed him a few sultry movements and a 'call me' motion by her ear.

"Beast Boy, Raven is really confident that you had something to do with…her." Robin said, trying to not get The Other Raven's attention.

Beast Boy turned to look at Robin. For a split second, his face reflected fear, but it quickly shifted to defensive anger.

"Get off my case, will ya?! What do you think I've been doing, taking an online course for Hogwarts? She's just picking on me because…"

He balked on his accusation, and simply gave Raven a dirty look before turning away again, only to be spun back around by Raven.

"If you're so innocent, then why did you hang back in the Museum for so long after the robbery? I find it hard to believe that you were actually talking to a statue."

"Well, if you want to dig through our private lives, why don't I just ask you what goes on in your room? What do you want to hide from us all the time?"

"That's completely irrelevant. Answer my question."

"Answer mine first!"

Raven let her eyes glow white.

"Don't tempt me." She warned.

"HEY! Leave him alone, weirdo!"

The Other Raven darted across the room and slid in between the two of them, shielding Beast Boy from the sorceress.

"What did he ever do to you, huh?" she demanded.

Raven let her eyes darken, but she remained steadfast.

"You're protecting someone you've known for about fifteen minutes, I hope you realize."

The Other Raven raised an eyebrow and wagged a finger in her duplicate's face.

"That still doesn't give you the right to hurt him! Why do you hate him anyway?"

"My reasons are justified, believe me." Raven responded.

At that moment, Beast Boy felt his chest cave in. He opened his mouth a fraction in shock. Despite her curse, she had somehow found a way to get another lash in without using any insulting words. And this one stung the worst. So it was true…

"Oh, you're such a _harpy!_" The Other Raven exclaimed. She then turned to Beast Boy and smiled sympathetically.

"Come with me, babe." She said, taking his hand and escorting him out the door, as he complied without restraint.

"You poor thing, why do you let her bully you like that?"

The Other Raven sat on Beast Boy's bunk bed, seemingly oblivious to the state the room was in.

"The thing is… she's not totally wrong." Beast Boy admitted nervously, causing The Other Raven to tilt her head in confusion.

"Right or wrong, she still treats you badly. If someone said something like that to _me_, I'd show them patience and reasoning." She held up both of her fists. "Meet Patience, and meet Reasoning."

Beast Boy chuckled. This Raven was so much more bubbly and outspoken than the other. Still, even with the upgrade in personality, something still seemed kind of wrong with her. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he couldn't trust himself enough to abandon these preconceptions either.

"Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?" Beast Boy inquired carefully.

The Other Raven smiled. "I'm no encyclopedia, but go ahead."

"Um…who exactly _is _your Dad?" he began.

"Everyone wants to know about that… well, since you asked politely, you should know that he's not exactly my Dad. I mean, he's my Stepdad. But he's millions of times better than my actual Dad, that's why I consider him my real Daddy. His name is Rex Roth, and he's a taxidermist."

Beast Boy paused. "So…you know who your actual Dad is then, right?"

"Sort of. Mom said he was a complete tool, pardon my French. Like, she won't even talk about him most of the time. She said he was probably sent to her straight from Hell." She said jokingly.

Beast Boy felt a finger of ice stroke his spine. This Raven…knew nothing about her demonic heritage, did she?

"Truth be told, my name isn't actually Raven. It's Rachel, but Mom sometimes calls me that, and I think it sounds cool, so that's what my friends call me."

Beast Boy swallowed uncomfortably. "Um… so… you, don't have any…powers or anything?"

The change was instantaneous. The friendly smile on The Other Raven's face blew like a spent light bulb and became fearful and violated.

"Who told you that?" she demanded softly. "What do you know?" She got to her feet and raised the volume of her voice considerably. "TELL ME!"

A pile of clothes upon Beast Boy's dresser flew backwards against the wall, pushed by an unseen telekinetic force. The Other Raven saw this and took a few steps backward fearfully.

"Woah woah woah, calm down, Raven." Beast Boy said urgently, approaching her and clutching her hands. The Other Raven pulled away and grabbed the sides of her arms.

"I-I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" she stammered. "P-p-please don't t-t-tell."

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes in thought. She had reacted like she was terrified of her own powers, and apparently, she had no idea how to use them, either.

"I won't tell, Raven. But…you don't know about your powers?"

"I don't know… I…can't control it. It just happens sometimes…" she whimpered.

"Hey…" Beast Boy said in a comforting tone he was startled he pulled off. "Don't be afraid…"

She looked Beast Boy in the face. "How did you know?"

"Well… it's kind of hard to explain." He was promptly grabbed and shaken.

"Please! Tell me! I can handle it!"

Beast Boy sat her down and did his best to explain what Raven's powers were. He was extremely cautious about telling her who her real Father was, warning her multiple times that the answer was going to be shocking, and he still felt his heart sink when he finally told her about Trigon. She was in complete and utter shock for almost five minutes, but she allowed him to continue. After repeated insisting that Trigon was sealed away and not going to escape any time soon, Beast Boy continued on to tell her how she arrived here.

"…When that didn't work I asked him if he could somehow make Raven act actually like me. He said no at first, but then he said there was another way to do it. I didn't listen when he wanted to tell me what exactly 'it' was, and I made him go ahead and do it. When the smoke cleared, there you were."

The Other Raven remained silent for a while.

"So that girl who dresses exactly like me…"

"IS you. I know it's a lot to take in, and I wish you didn't have to find out like this."

The Other Raven smiled weakly. "Well, at least I know now. Could I ask another question?"

"Sure, whatever you need."

"…Are you satisfied with your wish?" she inquired.

Beast Boy felt a lump form in his throat. She just HAD to go there, didn't she? This was going to be even harder to say than that she was a Demon's baby.

"Yes…and no. I mean, I really like you, don't get me wrong, and I'd take you over My Raven any day. But… this wish is unfair to you. I don't have the right to take you from one dimension and drop you in another where you already exist. No one does."

The Other Raven nodded. "I understand… and you're right. Is there any way for me to get back home?"

"Yeah. I have one final wish. I can change everything back to the way it was."

"But wait… will I ever get to see you again?" The Other Raven asked.

"I'm sure that there's another Beast Boy in your dimension, too."

"Where? I've never even heard of him until now."

Beast Boy thought, then came up with something.

"I got it. Are you ready to go now?" he asked.

"I guess. I'd like to have a talk about my Dad with my parents. They've got a lot of explaining to do." The Other Raven quipped.

Beast Boy smiled, but it did little to halt the sadness welling up inside of him.

"Okay." He then turned to face the wall.

"Ikraam? Come on out!" he commanded.

Instantly, the room became alight with bright, widely varying colors as the bombastic Djinn appeared inside the room.

"_Hello, Master_." He greeted, looking over at The Other Raven. "_What can I do for you_?"

"Ikraam, I want to use my last wish now."

"_Certainly, Master._" The Djinn replied. "_What is your final request?_"

"Ikraam, I want you to revoke my first two wishes. Give Raven the ability to insult me again, and take this Raven back to her own dimension. But listen, this is the most important part."

Beast Boy turned to look at The Other Raven, then back to his genie.

"Make sure this Raven gets the chance to meet the other me in her own dimension."

"_Very well, Master. I shall make it so._"

The two teens turned to each other.

"…Thank you." The Other Raven said quietly with a faint smile.

Beast Boy couldn't control himself anymore, and let tears well up in his eyes.

"I'll be sure to say hi when I get back." The Other Raven graced her farewell with a hand on Beast Boy's cheek, before vanishing into a wisp of smoke.

"_I apologize for our melancholy goodbye, Master. But I must depart._" The Djinn said after a long pause.

"_Fare thee well, Master._"

Beast Boy didn't even turn to look as his genie made his exit in a plume of multi-colored mist. He simply stared at the spot where The Other Raven once stood, allowing himself to sulk silently as the only time Raven had ever truly appreciated anything he did entered his past.

His door opened, and there she stood. Raven moved to enter the room, but paused when she saw the state Beast Boy was in. She sensed his pain almost instantly, and shut the door behind her.

"How? And why?" she said shortly.

Beast Boy knit his brows and slowly clenched his fists, refusing to take his eyes off of where he stared.

"Go away." He said abruptly. Raven raised her eyebrow.

"No." she replied, equally terse.

He tore his eyes off of the spot where her duplicate once stood and fixated on the one he was stuck with. His eyes went from being silent and mourning to ablaze as he felt the fire of pent up rage flare up inside of him.

"So _now _you care, huh?" he inquired, his voice quaking.

"What are you talking about?" Raven inquired, keeping her voice calm, but secretly alarmed at how quickly and intensely his anger came.

"Don't act like you don't know!" Beast Boy snarled, advancing towards Raven and putting his face inches from hers. "You've got your reasons for hating me, huh?! Well, I've got my reasons for trying to make you stop!"

Raven remained steadfast, carefully looking over what Beast Boy had just said, never breaking eye contact with him. So, this wasn't an elaborate practical joke?

"Explain yourself." She said firmly.

Beast Boy bared his teeth and had to stop himself from growling.

"Did you _hear_ what I just said?! You said it yourself! You hate me! Well, I wanted to make you stop, but I guess not even magic can give me a break, you heartless, bullying, termite-headed-"

Raven's eyes flashed white, but Beast Boy was too angry to care.

(Yeah, that's right. Go ahead and beat me up. That's your response to everything I do anyway. See if I care.) he thought.

To his confusion, he instead felt a cool, relaxing light upon both of his cheeks. It was so gentle and unexpectedly pleasant that he stopped mid-rant.

"Calm down." Raven said shortly.

Raven let the soft light fade when she saw Beast Boy's constricted face loosen a little.

"Start from the beginning. When did you start thinking that I disliked you?"

Beast Boy couldn't believe it. Raven…was actually listening to him? Well, it was probably just because she felt bad.

"Why should I tell you?" he said resentfully.

"Because I need to know how all of this got started… and I feel guilty for hurting your feelings."

"Oh, _now_ you feel guilty!" Beast Boy laughed bitterly, turning away from her and walking over to his bed.

"Why do you say it like that? Beast Boy, you never once told any of us that something I was doing was upsetting you, or even that you were upset at all."

Beast Boy had to admit that she was right about that. He had kept all of his anger inside until now.

"So, enlighten me." Raven said, striding over to him and sitting down on his mattress beside him, removing her hood.

Beast Boy, quite shocked at her sudden warmth, cleared his throat noisily and opened his mouth, only to close it again. He looked into Raven's face, finding it frustratingly non-revealing.

"Well… I guess it all started about a week ago. I mean, it was nothing special, you just said something about me being loud or annoying or whatever, but I started to think that I wasn't anything more than a nuisance to you. It was like, the straw that broke the camel's back, or something like that…"

"Why didn't you tell me that I was making you feel this way?" Raven inquired.

"Because I didn't think you would care. I thought you'd call me overdramatic or one of those other fancy words you use."

"Well let me be the first to tell you that wouldn't happen. I'd be lying if I said that none of the things you do irritate me, and I find it prevalent to let you know when something is. But if you begin to feel chastised, you have to let me know. Sometimes, I say things that are unreasonably harsh. Like when I was arguing with…myself, earlier. Implying that I hated you was disrespectful and, frankly, chimerical."

"Chimera-cal?" Beast Boy echoed, not exactly sure what that last word meant.

"Chimerical, it means ridiculous, outrageous, insane..."

"Oh."

"So, is that what all of this has been about? You thought I didn't like you?"

"Not even that. Even if you didn't like me, I expected you to at least respect me as a team mate. But it seems like you don't even do that."

Raven frowned. This went much deeper than she thought.

"Well, you're wrong." She clarified. A few moments of silence proved that this wasn't an adequate response.

"Beast Boy, do I have to remind you that you were an instrumental part in both the takedown of Trigon and The Brotherhood of Evil? Without you, who knows where I'd be? I admit, you have a very…unorthodox way of handling certain things, but just because they're different from the way I might do it doesn't make them any less effective."

Raven, in a moment of cautious kindness, placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.

"No matter how many times I tell you otherwise, don't ever forget that I care about you. If I hurt your feelings, tell me. I apologize for making you feel this distraught."

Beast Boy looked at her and managed a small smile. "Thanks. I guess it was silly to think like that." Raven gave him another squeeze on the shoulder and managed a tiny, affectionate grin as well.

"Now, I think we should clear the air. How did you manage to use magic?" Raven asked.

"Um… promise you'll believe me here? I mean, this is gonna sound kind of… chimerical." Beast Boy said, his sense of humor finally returning.

"I'm willing to stretch my suspension of disbelief." Raven said, giving him a smile at his well-timed joke.

"Well, last night, I stuck around the Middle Eastern exhibit, cause I wasn't feeling all that great after you said something about me having no brain… anyway, I sat down near this bajillion year old Persian vase and accidently knocked it off of its stand, but I caught it. I put it back up there, but…" Beast Boy paused to inhale and exhale deeply. "Ho boy, this sounds so stupid out loud. Promise you'll believe me, 'cause I swear this is the truth."

"I've had a conversation with myself today, I'm ready to believe anything." Raven replied matter-of-factly.

"Okay… um… when I touched the vase, out pops this…sigh….genie. Yeah, yeah, I know, but it's true. Anyway, Ali Baba grants me three wishes, so I wished for you to stop insulting me. And, Presto, you can't."

"I suppose that explains why I was having trouble speaking this morning."

"Yeah, well, you couldn't insult me, but I forgot to specify you actually _liking _me." Beast Boy said somberly. Raven frowned.

"You didn't need to wish for that." The sorceress insisted.

"I was psyched out at the time, and Ikraam, the genie, I mean, says that he can't actually make you like me, so he speaks up about a Plan B. Me, being the genius that I am, tell him to go ahead and do it without listening to what it actually is."

"And that's where alternate Raven comes in." Raven concluded. She then looked about the room cautiously. "Come to think of it, where did she go?"

"I sent her back. It ain't fair to keep someone who already exists here around like some sort of pet. Besides, she needed to go back and talk to her parents."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, for one thing, they never told her about who her Dad was, or where her powers came from. She didn't even know what her powers were."

Raven gave Beast Boy a thoroughly shocked look.

"I…um…wow. That's unfortunate. So…you've used up all of your wishes, then?"

"Yeah. Ironic, huh? I use my last wish to get rid of the other two."

"That isn't uncommon. In fact, a number of Djinn add side effects to their wishes out of spite, they find being subservient to humans demeaning."

"Hold on, how do you-"

"Beast Boy, I'm a sorceress. I'm quite savvy with all manner of supernatural creatures."

Raven looked away. "Djinn are only summoned when those with powerful, soul-consuming needs touch their vessels. I had no idea you cared so much about… well, me caring about you. And…I'm truly sorry." Raven practically whispered the last part of her phrase.

Beast Boy felt his entire body become lighter when he heard this.

"My wish has been granted." He said, and as Raven turned to face him, he beamed and grabbed her, pulling her into a hug. Raven went rigid, but eventually allowed herself to unfurl and hugged him back.

***A/N* End of the first story. What's next, you may be asking? It's up to you! Send me an idea, and I'll be happy to discuss it with you. The story is fueled by you guys' ideas, so don't be afraid! *A/N* **


	5. Interlude

***A/N* Alright, we're moving along nicely, I've already got a good number of requests filtering in. I'll try to address them all, but I must warn you that updates are going to be less frequent, since I'm starting College very soon, and I'll have substantially less free time. But I'll still try my best to keep things reasonably punctual. Enjoy! *A/N* **

"It really was foolish to think that I hated you." Raven said after reminiscing with her boyfriend.

"You've gotten a lot better over the years, but you can't say my reasons weren't at least a little justified." Beast Boy replied.

"If you try and make me apologize again, I'm going to put your hand in warm water when you sleep." Raven threatened.

"In the bed we share." Beast Boy parried.

"I could always make you sleep on the floor."

"You couldn't."

"Could."

"Couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't."

"Don't try me, Logan." Raven said half seriously.

Beast Boy gave her a Cheshire grin before looking down at his drink. "So tell me the truth, what is this?" he said, picking the glass up to eye level and swirling the amber liquid inside.

"A Cuba Libre." Raven replied, sipping her own. "I learned how to make it online. What do you think?"

"It's good." Beast Boy said, smacking his lips to analyze the flavor. "What's in it, lemon?"

"Lime, actually. Lime, cola, and white rum."

Beast Boy gave his girlfriend an astonished laugh. "Woah, woah, hold the phone, you gave me a hard drink? You know that I don't turn 21 for another four months, right?"

"Yeah, and we're in The Netherlands. The legal drinking age here is 18. Prosit." Raven said, briefly raising her glass before downing what was left, the ice rattling shrilly.

Beast Boy stared warily at the beverage in his hand. "I don't know, Robin'll blow a gasket if he finds out we had any alcohol."

"He would if we were on duty, but we're not. We come up to the lodge to get away from everything, Garfield, remember? You said it yourself, heroes need a vacation. So embrace it." Raven placed her glass on the ground and leaned back comfortably. "Besides, it's a single drink. And I know you're no lightweight."

"True." Beast Boy concurred, sipping his drink. Then, he gained a devilish grin. "I wonder what _you're _like when you get hammered?"

Raven turned 21 ages ago, so she was allowed to drink as she pleased. However, due to Robin's stringent rules about drinking on duty and her generally conservative nature, she did so sparsely, and in the rare event that she did, she always chose something softer than average.

"A mystery to both of us." Raven said dismissively.

Beast Boy chuckled. "You'll slip up one of these days, and I'm going to be there to get it on camera."

Raven smirked at her boyfriend. "This is turning into an obsession of yours, isn't it?"

"Only a little." The changeling replied.

The two allowed silence to overtake them once again, simply listening to the noises of the night and the occasional whisper of the leaves as a chilled breeze crept through the trees.

"Who do you think is the craziest villain we've ever fought?" Beast Boy queried after the brief intermission.

"Define 'crazy.'"

"Umm… like, mentally sick, delusional, out-of-it."

Raven thought for a few moments. "What made you think of this?"

"Beats me. My mind goes all over the place when it gets really quiet."

Raven flitted through the many names that popped into her head, trying to find the one that stood out as the crowning achievement in insanity.

"If we were only measuring how mentally unwell they were, and not how homicidal or power-hungry, I'd probably have to go with Anton Scissors."

Beast Boy nodded slowly. "Good choice. He's a piece of work, ain't he? I guess he gets extra points in your book because he's got a thing for you."

Raven made a short noise of disgust. "Don't remind me. I'm glad he's in a strait-jacket nowadays, but I think recovery is a lost cause in his case."

"It's too bad, 'cause he's actually smart. It still wigs me out that he pulled off that alliance at one point."

"He should have set his standards higher, though." Raven quipped dryly.

"Yeah. That was one of the weirdest calls we ever got."

***A/N* Guess who's ba-a-a-a-ack? I swear, if I had the technology, I would start blasting Freak by LFO as soon as that sentence was read. But we've got a special guest joining him this time around, so keep your eyes peeled for the second story of this Anthology, XYY, requested by Kaarlinaa. Stay tuned! *A/N***


	6. XYY: Part 1

***A/N* Hello again, everyone. I've been spending the last few days exploring my new College campus and getting to know some people around here. But I've had some time to write, and while I think it's a bit too short, I'm proud of this first chapter. Writing this chapter gave me goosebumps in more ways than one. Enjoy! *A/N***

The Pembrook Institution of Atmospheric Study was in a state of stagnation. It had been months since their top scientist, Dr. Gustavos Scissors, had gone on hiatus for 'personal reasons.' His apprentice, Dr. Milos Fojtik, was forcibly shoved into the lead development department thanks to his absence, and the young scientist was put under extreme stress to try and perfect the company's most anticipated experiment, the Liquid Temperature Alteration Serum, better known as LTAS. Dr. Fojtik was extremely hesitant to test the formula on anyone thanks to its potentially life-threatening nature.

Since development had slowed, some of the Institute's funding was cut due to impatient executive decisions, and steadily, the other, less important projects grinded to a halt. There had been precious few updates from the Institution on progress, and many worried that they had shut down entirely.

One snowy, bitingly cold December evening, a figure silently crept up to the security gate and clubbed the night guard over the head with a heavy segment of pipe, swiping his keychain and ID card. After entering the pass-code, which he knew by heart, he slipped the card into the verification slot. The light blinked green and the door unlocked.

Red X glanced about his surroundings. The PIAS was a bit smaller than he had been expecting. It was actually a bit disappointing. Finding the main laboratory was going to be far too easy. Standing in the darkened lobby, he snatched a map of the Institution off of the front desk and glanced at it.

B2. Third door on the right.

Crumpling the bit of paper into a ball and tossing it over his shoulder, he walked briskly to the elevator and pried the doors open. Staring at the darkened elevator shaft, he leapt forward and clung to the wire. Slacking his grip ever so slightly, he slid into the abyss below. Counting the seconds in his head, he determined the exact time to leap off of the wire to the adjacent door.

Now supported on about two inches of metal, he separated the doors as fast as he could, and slipped through the gap as soon as it was wide enough. Heart pounding, he gave himself an imaginary pat on the back as he glanced down the hallway. His heart skipped a beat.

A light was on. Not a security light, but one of the overhead lights in one of the rooms. The exact room he was aiming for.

Maybe this would be interesting after all.

Sneaking forward at a quick pace, he pressed himself against the wall. The room was right next to him; if he leaned to the right far enough, he could slip his fingers inside. But he waited, keeping his eyes out for anyone coming down the hall while pressing his ear to the wall, hunting for telltale signs of human activity.

Nothing. Not even a cough or the rattle of equipment.

Red X slipped into the laboratory. This was more like it. Machines he didn't recognize whirred obediently in the corners, test tubes and vials of God-knows-what sat stored behind locked glass cabinets. It was a gold mine.

But he knew where the richest supply of cash would come from. It was a specific flask of something that the brainiacs here liked to call LTAS, some sort of liquid superpower. It wasn't finished, but X could think of a good number of foreign 'friends' of his that would pay through the nose to just get a look at something like this.

The million dollar question, however, was where it rested.

Crossing the room as silently as ever, he reached the other end of the lab, where the many cabinets of chemicals stood, locked tight in cabinets. Not tight enough.

X withdrew a narrow metal tool and plunged it into the keyhole. After a few flicks of the wrist, the door clicked and he opened the cabinet like a child opening a birthday gift. Mixtures and compounds every color and more presented themselves to the thief. He glanced at the labels as quickly as he could.

Sulfuric Acid, Cesium Chloride, Ununtrium Hydroxide, no, this was all wrong! Where was the good stuff? Placing a hand on the counter below, he began rifling through the vials, careful not to break any.

He froze when he felt the hand he placed on the counter touch something sticky.

Glancing down, he retracted his hand. He had accidentally put his hand in a small puddle of blood. Glancing around, he noticed a scalpel that was left near the sink, also bloodied. An overturned bottle of ibuprofen sat by the sink as well, the dull red capsules scattered everywhere.

"What the hell happened here?" Red X muttered to himself.

His response was the mechanical click of a pistol being cocked behind him.

"Hands where I can see 'em."

Red X did as he was told and raised his hands, only to humor the poor security guard before he made his escape.

"Nice outfit. Tell me, were you going for the wetsuit or BDSM look?"

This caught the thief off guard. This didn't sound like the typical tired, gruff voice he had come to expect. His tone was calm and a little sleazy.

"Who are you?" the gun wielder inquired.

"Who wants to know?" Red X shot back.

"Ooh, points lost for a predictable response, my skin-tight friend."

Red X held his breath, then managed to teleport a good distance behind his original spot, meeting his attacker face to face, armed with his wrist blade.

A man, not even that, a kid, was the aggressor. He had a shaved head and icy blue eyes, brimming with confidence and a flair of mania, and he wore a heavy black trench coat that touched his ankles, obviously too large for him. Closer examination revealed that he was wearing no shoes despite the cold. He held a revolver up against his abdomen, and barely flinched when Red X appeared in front of him.

"Nice trick. Now pull a rabbit out of your hat." He sneered condescendingly.

"I don't think you know who you're dealing with, slimeball." X hissed. He glanced down at his bare feet again, and noticed a small red trickle creeping down each of his legs.

"You took the words right out of my mouth. Don't you watch the news at all?"

Red X sized up his opponent. Now that he mentioned it, he did look a bit familiar. Where had he seen his face before?

"Any particular reason why you're breaking into a facility like this in single digit temperatures?" the mystery man asked.

"I should be asking you the same thing. You can't fool me, you're no security guard."

The stranger gave him a half smile. "Very observant. Luckily for you, my errand here is finished, I just came by to turn off the light, but lo and behold, you show up."

"What business does a schmuck like you have here anyway?" Red X snapped.

"Nosy, aren't we?" The stranger replied. He then took a few steps back and opened his massive black trench coat. Red X recoiled in disgust.

He wore no shirt, and there was a dial embedded in his chest, with blue on the left side and red on the right, similarly colored tubules extending outwards from their respective sides. But the part that repulsed Red X was a small part below the dial. A small, perfectly crescent-shaped incision bled profusely beneath the bifurcated apparatus. Some frayed wires indicated that there had once been another synthetic insertion there, but it had been unprofessionally torn out. Blood trickled down the stranger's abdomen and soaked into his white shorts, turning them crimson. Along the inside of his coat were a large amount of blue and red egg-shaped pods, each on the appropriate side.

Things began coming together in Red X's head. The bloody scalpel, the pain-killers…

"What did you do to yourself?" he exclaimed in disgust.

"I didn't do a thing. I was undoing what someone else did to me. So I could do this again…"

The stranger raised his right hand. The vials of chemicals began boiling with heat, eventually shattering and spraying shards of glass and super-heated fluid everywhere.

Red X leapt backwards from the sudden bombs and hurled one of his adhesive projectiles at his attacker, hitting its target and pinning his hand to the wall. His celebration was short lived, since the stranger simply raised his other hand in lazy resilience. X moved to jump out of the way, but felt his feet stick to the ground, losing his balance and falling backwards, hitting the floor and wincing when he felt glass shards stab into his back. His feet were frozen solid.

"Nice landing, Grace." The stranger quipped. He then tilted his head to one side and stared up at his trapped hand. Steadily, the red adhesive began peeling away from intense heat, until he could simply remove his hand from the wall. As Red X thrashed around on the floor in a desperate attempt to get back on his frigid feet, the stranger tucked his hands into his coat pockets and approached the downed thief.

"Listen, chief, I have a proposition for you." He began. "I doubt you realize it, but the second you stepped inside this building, you triggered the silent alarm."

"Bull. I didn't make a sound, I entered through the ceiling."

"Sound doesn't have anything to do with it. This place is wired with a state of the art Temperature Signature system. Anything living that enters the building without proper authentication is recognized as a threat, and it immediately calls a help line." He revealed a key card he had in his coat pocket.

"Proper authentication, you are without."

"How would you know?!" X spat. "You don't even work here!"

"You're welcome to stick around and wait for _them _to show up and tell you otherwise. But it'd be a shame to lose someone as talented and exploitable as you, so I'll cut a deal with you."

"I don't make deals with anyone unless they pay me."

"You didn't even let me finish. If you help me pull off one little job, I'll get you some things that'll earn you some serious scratch. And by serious, I mean millions. Maybe even billions, if you find someone desperate or stupid enough."

He gave Red X a smile of mock-sympathy.

"Or… I leave you here and let them scoop you up like a dropped quarter. Your choice."

Red X narrowed his eyes. "I work alone." he said venomously.

"You won't work at all if you don't hurry up and make a decision. You know that I'm not talking about the Police when I say 'them,' right?"

The sound of pounding footsteps upstairs made Red X flinch.

"Hurry up! Check every room!" came a familiar sounding voice.

"Like clockwork." The stranger said. "They'll be down here in no time. What's it gonna be?"

Red X clenched his fists. So, it was either help out this psychopath and _maybe_ make some good money, or let this same psychopath leave him trapped and let his greatest rivals capture and arrest him.

"Fine. I'll do it."

"And do you promise to not try anything counterintuitive, at risk of your reward and your life, if necessary?" The stranger said.

"WHAT?!" he bellowed in response.

The elevator bell sounded a few doors down in the hallway.

"Hey, look! There's a light on!"

"Alright, FINE! Just let me go!" X bellowed, finally relenting.

The stranger smiled and waved a finger teasingly. "Mmm…not quite yet."

And with that, he stepped out into the hallway, leaving Red X to shout obscenities out at him from the floor.

"Hey, look! There's a light on!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pointing down the hallway.

"Alright, let's move!" Robin ordered, hurrying forward as his teammates flanked him from both sides.

They slid to a halt when a silhouetted figure in an extremely large coat leisurely exited the lit room, turning to the five teens and tucking his hands into his pockets.

"Alright, there are two ways we can go about this. You either come quietly, or we make you come quietly." Robin said, putting his hands on his hips.

The figure cocked his head to one side in apparent confusion, before snorting and bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Why does that laugh sound familiar?" Cyborg inquired nervously.

The figure wiped his eyes with a bloody tissue he had tucked in his pocket.

"Oh, that is RICH! Half a year gone, and _that's _the first thing you say? You're a real creature of habit."

The stranger stepped forward a ways, so he could be seen clearly.

The Titans were struck silent.

"Wow, don't all get up at once." Weatherman said sarcastically. "I wasn't expecting a surprise party or anything, but damn, the energy here is flatter than week old wine."

Robin balled up his fists and took a single pace forward. "You're supposed to be in the asylum."

"Yet here I stand. Fact trumps assumption, don't it?" Weatherman replied curtly.

The tension was broken when an angry yell emerged from the lit room.

"HEY! You double crossing psycho! I played your game, now honor your deal!" Weatherman sighed and shook his head, smiling like a bemused parent.

"Patience now, Fossil-Face." He called.

"Who do you have in there?" Robin demanded.

"Oh, nobody. Business partner. Now, where were we?"

Weatherman slipped his hand into his coat and extracted one of the red pods. Giving it a quick squeeze, he lobbed it towards the ceiling. It bumped into one of the emergency sprinklers and burst open, a white hot blaze of compact heat flaring up for the briefest moment. There came a loud, ringing alarm as the four sprinklers in the hall sprung to life and sprayed water in all directions, attempting to eliminate the imaginary fire.

The Titans barely had time to react to getting doused before Weatherman extracted another pod, blue this time. Squeezing it, he reared back and pitched the pod in the heroes' direction. It whirled through the air and burst over the group of superheroes. The air around the center of the explosion instantly condensed into water. The water from the sprinklers, however, became solid. Including the water on the Titans.

The water clinging to their skin and clothes flash froze and clung to them like cement. Beast Boy attempted to move, but his feet remained glued to the floor and his arms refused to budge. Robin had his hand extended outwards towards Weatherman, but was unable to reach him and was trapped in that position, his fingers inches from Weatherman's face. The others were no more fortunate, locked into positions of cover or shock like a perverted imitation of ice sculptures.

Weatherman stepped back and framed the scene between his thumbs and index fingers, like a photographer looking for the perfect shot.

"Well, gang, I hate to cut the party short, but me and my colleague have to split." He noticed Starfire's eyes were aglow, and the ice around her hands was beginning to melt. He briskly aimed his right hand at the room off to the side and thawed the ice around Red X.

"Let's go, Fossil-Face." He barked, retreating past the Titans. Red X, unwilling to reveal himself out of humiliation, tossed one of his Escape X's at the ceiling and leapt out of the destroyed laboratory.

Starfire, her arms now completely thawed, quickly melted the rest of the ice on her body, then moved to defrost her other teammates, starting with Cyborg, who was closest.

"Th-th-thanks, Star." He said, his teeth clicking together noisily. He set his blaster to its lowest setting, where it simply radiated intense heat from the end and little else, and moved to help the rest of his friends.

When everyone was finally able to move freely, they hurried out of the building as fast as they could, the fire alarm still wailing and the sprinklers spraying water in all directions.

They exited the building, sprinting for the T-Car, as their wet bodies were practically twisting in agony in the bitingly cold temperatures. Still in their uniforms, they had little insulation from the frigid air, and their damp skin felt as though tiny knives slashed at them with every stride they took. Even worse, a cruel breeze decided to pass by as they ran.

Cyborg reached the T-Car first, flinging the driver's seat door open and slamming it shut as soon as he was inside.

"DUDE! UNLOCK THE OTHER DOORS!" Beast Boy bellowed, pounding on the window.

Mortified, Cyborg did so, and his teammates piled into the car.

"Heat. NOW!" Raven commanded, her cloak dripping with moisture.

"I c-c-can't just start it up! The engine h-h-has to be warm for the A/C to get warm!"

"Then get us back to the Tower before we f-f-freeze to death!" Robin ordered, unable to stop himself from shivering like the others.

Cyborg slammed down onto the gas and the tires shrieked as the T-Car roared to life and took off. Swerving onto the highway, the car shot past other drivers on the highway, who blared their horns in anger and confusion.

***A/N* Personally, I'd much rather be cold than hot, but if something like that happened to me, I'd probably shut down. So, Anton and X have an alliance now. The world is in for some serious egotistical mayhem. Apologies for no BBRae, I'll get to that soon. Until next time! *A/N***


	7. XYY: Part 2

***A/N* And we're back. I'm quite proud of this one. And yes, I managed to include BBRae too. Enjoy! *A/N***

Anton Scissors busily smacked a gauze pad onto his incision. After checking to make sure it wouldn't fall off, he pulled on a black shirt he had previously stolen. He decided to keep the trench coat, it made a good holster for his new pod weapons. Plus, it looked pretty good on him.

"So, who's gonna pay for the amputation?"

Weatherman stopped pulling on his trench coat to give a quizzical look at Red X, who sat atop a nearby fire escape. The two had made their way into a run-down part of the city, and hid in an alleyway.

"Amputation?" Weatherman inquired.

"For when your feet get gangrene." X affirmed dully, pointing towards his ally's bare feet. "They're gonna freeze off at some point."

Anton smirked and shook his head. "I generate my own source of heat. I could technically be walking around in my drawers and I'd still be warmer than everyone else, even if they wrap themselves up like birthday presents."

Red X stood up on the rickety metal balcony and crossed his arms.

"So tell me, psycho, what exactly _is _my reward for giving you a hand?"

Weatherman turned to look up at the thief. "Use proper terminology when you describe people with mental imbalances." He said sternly.

Red X rolled his eyes. "Alright, psycho-PATH, what's my reward?"

Weatherman gave an impressed snort at his indignant behavior.

"Don't you want to hear your job first?" he asked.

"No, I want to hear my bounty first, so if the job is difficult, I can double my price."

Weatherman raised an eyebrow. "Price? There is no price. You take what you get, or I leave you hanging from a telephone wire."

Red X glared down at the arsonist.

"You wanna run that last part by me one more time, big shot?" he growled.

"Drop the tough guy act, it doesn't suit you." Anton said. "But, this is a friendly partnership, so I'll tell you what your reward is. Or 'price' if that makes you feel better. I know what you came into the lab for. You came for the LTAS prototype."

The thief was alarmed that he had guessed correctly.

"I can see why you might covet something like that, but your efforts would have come up dry. The last of the LTAS prototype is already being used."

Weatherman rolled up his sleeve, revealing two small, circle shaped scars near his elbow.

"By yours truly. So, if you do good, I'll give you some of my blood."

Red X narrowed his eyes. "What good'll that do, give me a donor card?"

"Cute. You see, Fossil-Face, the prototype is imperfect, it converts too much of my blood into go-juice, so it's oversaturated. Put my blood in a centrifuge, and you'll get blood cells, plasma, and pure LTAS. Even a tiny amount like that is worth serious green on the black market. I've checked."

"And how do I know you aren't just feeding me crap?" X queried.

"Because I took time out of my schedule to save your ass from the Titans twenty minutes ago. If you were of no interest, you would've been a bleeding pig in a shark tank."

Red X pondered this thought for a moment. He made a pretty good point. Besides, if he was willing to cough up something as valuable as LTAS, he couldn't refuse.

"So what's my job?"

"It's simple, really. All you have to do is break into the Hall of Records and find the locations of three specific people."

"That's it?"

"That's it. Provided you do a good job, that is."

"What three people?"

"Ordinary citizens. Specifically, Bill Marsh, Alice Lincoln, and Trent Crowley. You tell me where I can find them, I pay you on the spot, and you'll never see me again. But if you lie, you can guarantee I'll find out. So please, make it easy for the both of us."

Red X thought about the offer. Were there any downsides?

"If I tell you where you can find these three people, will you kill them?"

Weatherman gave an offended gasp.

"Kill them? I'm just trying to get a little something organized. What would I gain from killing them?"

Red X stared down at his employer suspiciously.

"I'm not sure I believe you."

"Fossil-Face, I don't kill anyone unless it's by accident. You've got me pegged for some kind of serial killer. No, I pursue a more skillful profession."

"Setting stuff on fire? Yeah, that's real white collar." Red X drawled.

Weatherman shook his head.

"You just don't understand the beauty of burning. When something's ablaze, you can see everything that was used to make it melt away. Everything turns this gorgeous, pale white color, and I've never seen a darker black when the fire is gone. Fire is the universal destroyer, and it's also an artist in its own right."

Red X felt his stomach tighten. This had gone from amusing to creepy in just a few moments. He was dealing with a pyromaniac, who wanted to track down three people for unknown reasons.

Maybe he would feel better when he had his money. Maybe.

"Yes, Lieutenant. Yes, I can confirm that it was Anton Scissors with one hundred percent certainty. We're aware that both he and his accomplice are MIA."

Robin sat on the couch, completely bundled up in the comforter from his bed, only his head and arm visible. He spoke to the police Lieutenant on his cell phone, keeping his tone as professional as ever. His bangs drooped over his eyebrows, the sprinkler system having washed away the styling gel in his hair.

"You have to understand, Sir, that not only were we frozen solid for almost a minute, some of us more, we were left in a building where water was unavoidable. Not to mention that the current temperature outside is…" Robin checked his phone. "Seven degrees Fahrenheit. If we didn't find warmth, our body temperature would have plummeted, and it's highly likely that all five of us would be suffering from hypothermia. Thankfully, we only escaped with frostbite."

Robin rolled his eyes as Lt. Wynorski continued to scold him for leaving the scene of a crime before he arrived.

"Yes, Lieutenant. No, I'm afraid we can't do that… I understand the risks, Lieutenant… Have we ever taken a night off before, Lieutenant? I thought not, so you know that I'm being serious. Yes, conduct the typical procedures, but ask Dr. Scissors for assistance. Yes, him as well. Thank you, Lieutenant. Good night."

Robin ended the call and dropped his cell phone on the couch. He gingerly removed his left leg from its wrappings, hoisting his foot into the air. He grimaced at the state of his toes, they had turned a sickly purple color, and stung like mad to even twitch. Walking was nearly unbearable.

His face and arms were rubbed raw from the ice that clung to it previously. It itched, but he knew scratching would just aggravate the damaged tissue. He cursed himself for allowing Weatherman to escape him for a second time, and felt even worse for not being able to help the JCPD search for him. But he knew he couldn't step out into the cold again anytime soon. None of them could. If his skin hurt this much now, imagine how it would feel if it were frozen a second time.

He wished he could get up and get another blanket, but that would require putting pressure on his feet. He sighed and felt himself slump over. So this is what laziness felt like, inaptitude and necrotic skin. He had to admit, he thought it would be more enjoyable than this.

There was a long list of things Raven wasn't particularly fond of. But being sick was easily one of the top five.

Sure, she didn't catch anything very often, but whenever she did, she was in Hell. Not because she ever caught anything bad, but she hated having to be cared for. Raven prided herself on her independence, she could take care of herself and run her own schedule without intrusion from others. But as soon as her throat got sore, or her stomach upset, everyone took it as a cue to start pampering her like some trembling, spoiled Chihuahua.

Thankfully, everyone else was in pretty sorry condition right now, too. Unlike them, Raven managed to avoid frostbite thanks to her cloak and hood, but the icy air had messed with her sinuses something fierce. The moment she got back, she placed herself in a steaming hot bath to thaw herself out. But it was too late at that point, and now she lay in her bed, and her nose twitched.

"He-SHEW!" She bucked forward slightly as she sneezed into her elbow.

"Gesundheit."

Beast Boy had taken to sleeping in Raven's bed with her more often as the days grew colder. In the summertime, he opted out most of the time, seeing as how the heat made both of them sweat, and Raven was against wearing anything less than a shirt and shorts in bed, no matter how much he insisted that no misconduct would occur.

But when the temperature plummeted in November, Raven had almost insisted that they share a bed. They both disliked the cold, and it gave them an excuse to hold each other in bed (Raven preferred this term, as 'snuggle' or 'cuddle' made her sick to her stomach.) Beast Boy was more than happy to oblige.

Raven sniffed and grabbed a handkerchief off of the bedside table, wiping her nose with it.

"You really shouldn't be this close to me, you could catch it, too."

"Hey, it'd be one of the first things I'd actually get out of this relationship." Beast Boy teased.

Raven appropriately kicked him in the leg for that, but she couldn't hide her grin, either. She then laid back down on her pillow and sighed.

"I can't believe he's back." She said.

Beast Boy frowned. "Yeah. I was hoping we'd never have to see the old Heat and Cold Miser again. How do you think he escaped?"

"Frankly, I don't care. I just want him back in a padded cell."

Beast Boy knew exactly why Raven hated Weatherman as much as she did. The villain was sweet on her, and wasn't afraid to show it. He openly flirted with her while battling, and at one point came dangerously close to touching her inappropriately. Beast Boy felt the hairs on his neck stand on end.

"Who do you think his sidekick is?"

Raven paused to think for a moment.

"I think it's Red X."

"Red X? Why would he want a partner, especially a loon like Anton Scissors?"

"I'm not sure why, but I can only think of one villain who would be brazen enough to break into a lab under our jurisdiction. And Scissors called the guy 'Fossil-Face,' didn't he? X has an imprint of a skull on his headpiece."

Beast Boy gave an impressed whistle. "Robin would be proud, Sherlock."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Oh please, he probably figured it out the second he heard it. He just didn't have the chance to-"

Raven was cut off when her breath hitched.

"He-TCHEW!" She followed this with an annoyed growl. "Damn my sinuses..."

"Just throwing it out there, your sneeze is adorable."

"Oh, shut up."

Bill Marsh sat out on his apartment balcony, lighting a cigarette he held between his teeth. It was gorgeous sunrise, the sky flushed a deep tangerine. He took a long drag on the narcotic, exhaling the smoke into the air and watching it lazily drift about in the morning sun.

There came a knock at his door. He sighed. No one was ever up this early in his block except him. Which was precisely why he rose in the first place, he enjoyed the few moments he had before he had to deal with people all day.

The knock came again, a little more fervent this time.

"Bill?" a voice called out.

He had changed his name to Bill Marsh years ago. He wasn't proud of having to change his entire identity in order to keep up a façade, but it was a necessary precaution. Ever since the mistake he made, he couldn't let anyone know how foolish he had been. That was when he was young, and his freedom got the better of him.

The knock persisted aggressively.

"Alright, alright!" he yelled, snuffing his cigarette out on the ashtray and getting to his feet. Stamping irately through his sitting room, he reached the door and put his eye up to the peephole.

The person on the other end was standing off to the side, so his face couldn't be seen clearly. Bill opened the door a crack, leaving his latch locked.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

The stranger held up a package, still keeping his face hidden from view, but it was clear that he was a young man in his mid-twenties.

"Hey, sorry if I woke you, man. I, uh, checked my mail this morning, and the postman screwed up. This package was in my box, but it was addressed to you." His tone was apologetic.

"Leave it by the door, I'll get it later." Bill grumbled.

"Uh, I think you should take it now, Dude. It's perishable."

Bill cursed under his breath, but closed his door and undid the latch.

The door was flung open and the stranger kicked Bill hard in the kneecap. Bill collapsed onto the ground with a loud shout, and he attempted to shut the door with his foot. The assailant beat him to it and slammed it shut with the both of them inside.

"Goddamn!" Bill exclaimed, crawling hastily away from the intruder, who followed him at a brisk pace. Bill clambered into his room and grabbed his pistol out from under his pillow. Before he could even turn to aim, the intruder swatted the firearm out of his hand and grabbed his undershirt with both fists. Dragging the squirming man out into the sitting room, he flung him onto the couch and grabbed a lamp.

Bill raised his hands in feeble defense as he was repeatedly struck over the head with the heavy end of his own lamp. The stranger tossed the weapon aside after a few good whacks and grabbed Bill by the scruff of his undershirt. He ended his barrage by throwing him onto the glass coffee table, Bill crashing through it and colliding with the ground.

The intruder turned him over. He was barely conscious, his head bleeding from the previous trauma, and his face cut by various shards of glass.

"…Why..?" Bill muttered weakly. The stranger tilted his head to one side and gave a single, short laugh.

"I asked the same question almost every day." The stranger put acidic emphasis on the last word of his phrase. "Dad."

Bill opened his eyes a little wider.

"Don't act surprised, Maxwell. Don't you remember what happened in 1989?"

The stranger leaned in close. He was a shaved blonde with icy blue eyes.

"You got Alice Lincoln drunk at a party, had your way with her, and got her knocked up. And when your little boy was born, you ran. Disappeared, changed your name. You left your son to wonder why he didn't have a Daddy who loved him."

The stranger grabbed his neck.

"Your only son, Anton Terrell Scissors."

***A/N* Dun dun DUUUUUN! Quite the twist, no? See you next chapter!*A/N***


	8. XYY: Finale

***A/N* HOLY MOLY, IT IS ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME! I was so anxious to finish this damn chapter! Overall, I like what I came up with, but I wish I could have done more with Red X. But, oh well. I opted to scrap an action filled finale and go more for suspense and drama. Enjoy! *A/N***

He didn't get it. He'd never felt remorse in his entire career, at least, nothing this intense. Red X stared down at the small pouch of crimson blood he held in his hand.

It had been a cakewalk breaking into the Hall of Records and getting the information that Weatherman wanted. He could have done it in his sleep. But after he turned it over to him and received his promised reward, there came a persistent gnawing in his gut. He tried to ignore it at first, but it just wouldn't recede.

Weatherman assured him that he wouldn't murder the three he sought, but frankly, X trusted him as far as he could throw him. There was clearly something wrong with the guy, some screw was loose, or something was missing in his head. And he may have said that he wouldn't murder those three, but he never said anything about harming them. Torture, humiliation, and immolation were still on the table.

Red X growled and slapped himself.

"Snap out of it!"

What was he saying? Who cares what happened to three lowlifes he had never met? Hell, for all he knew, they deserved whatever they got! Maybe some justice was long overdue in their case.

…But what if it wasn't? What if they turned out to be good, innocent people that never harmed a soul? Somebody's grandparent, or only child, or some college student with the brightest of futures?

Who was he kidding? He was a thief, not an informant for one time arsonists. Besides, if he got tangled up in some sort of drug ring or money laundering scam, someone with an axe and a cartel tattoo would be after him in no time for some reason or another. He couldn't allow the lives of three people to be put in the hands of a maniac just for a little bit of money.

He thought about contacting the cops, maybe leaving an anonymous tip and forgetting all about it. No, they were always slow as molasses, it would be too late by the time they finally found them. He needed something swift and effective. Something that would mop this mess up and give him enough time to get out of Dodge with the blood. That was still good money, after all.

He felt a cringe ripple through his body.

"Not them…" he muttered.

Anyone but them. He couldn't stoop that low. That went against literally everything he pledged to _not_ do when he got the suit. But… who else _was _there? Who would jump into action at the word 'help' and be done in time for eight o'clock coffee?

No, he couldn't. He wouldn't.

But…he had to. He had come this far already. Lives might be at stake, and it was his fault.

Quaking with frustration, he let out a bellow of primal rage and kicked a trash can, the contents splattering over the snow covered sidewalk.

He hated asking for help. Especially when _he _screwed up.

Robin jerked awake at the loud tittering of his cell phone. He had fallen asleep on the couch, in the exact position he had laid down before. Still bundled up in the thick blanket, he threw the heavy fabric off and grasped for his phone. It was nowhere to be found, even though it rang persistently. He finally found it stuck between the couch cushions and checked to see who it was.

UNKNOWN CALLER

"This is Robin." He answered, doing his best to maintain his professional tone despite the fact that he woke up a few seconds ago.

"You're looking for Weatherman, right?" a male voice on the other end inquired. He had a begrudging undertone to his voice.

"Uh... M-May I ask who this is?" Robin said, now much more awake, sitting up ramrod straight and clasping his phone to his ear.

"Do you want to know what he's doing, or not?!" The voice on the other end spat. Robin was alarmed at the speaker's tone, but allowed him to continue politely.

"He's looking for three people. You got something to write on?"

Robin told him to remain on the line and stood to grab a pen and pad. Forgetting how sensitive his toes were, he bit his tongue to keep himself from exclaiming in pain as he hobbled over to the right drawer.

"I'm back. Go ahead." Robin said.

The leader of the Titans scribbled down the names and addresses the voice reeled off over the phone.

"Where did you hear this information?" Robin inquired after he was done writing.

"…" the voice on the phone faltered. "I can't tell you, but if you ignore me, the people I just told you about might die. Just…trust me."

"I understand if you're nervous, Sir, but we need a reliable source in order to-"

_"Are you deaf or something?!"_ the voice roared into the phone, Robin holding it further away from his ear to prevent hearing loss. "I just told you that lives are at risk! Get on it!"

And with a click, the dial tone began buzzing.

Bill couldn't see a thing. He opened his eyes to utter blackness, his face covered in scratches and sweat. Fidgeting weakly, he found himself sitting down, unable to move his arms, which were constricted behind him. He could hear little aside from a persistent rustling and what sounded like faint whimpering.

In a swish, the sack over his head was removed. He sat in a dingy, apparently abandoned room. Glancing around, he saw two more people tied to chairs just like him, with identical sacks over their heads.

A pair of black gloves yanked the sacks off of Bill's neighbors, revealing a woman, middle aged like him, in a state of near catatonia, and a muscular, much younger man in what looked like stereotypical biker paraphernalia. The woman looked about herself until she noticed Bill.

"…Maxwell? Is that you?" she whispered.

"Alice?" he whispered back.

"You know him?" the biker asked.

Alice turned to him. "He's my ex-husband. I haven't seen him in years. I thought he left the country."

"Technically, he's still your husband. You never got the chance to file divorce papers, because he ran away."

Anton Scissors stepped out from behind his captives, wearing his trench coat and a pair of black gloves. He looked very pleased with himself.

"Anton? Anton, you…" Alice stammered, dumbfounded.

"Hello, Mom. Dad. Trent." He said, over-enunciating the 't's in Trent's name.

"You're supposed to be in Cedar Grove!" Trent growled.

"I know, but you see, today is a very special day. I just had to get the whole family together." Anton replied serenely. He then looked up expectantly, waiting for a response.

"Oh, come on, now. Not _one_ of you remembers what today is?" he said, smiling in disbelief.

"Let us go." Trent warned, trying to sound menacing despite the dangerous situation he was in.

Anton ignored him.

"It starts with a 'B.' Come on, any takers?"

"The cops are gonna find us, now let us go." Trent interjected again. He squirmed, trying to get out of the tight cord of wire keeping his wrists restrained.

"It's my _Birthday_, genius!" Anton said, playfully swatting Trent on the knee.

Anton turned away from the three captives and looked through the decrepit shutters of the window out onto the frozen landscape.

"Twenty-five years ago on this very date, I was forced kicking and screaming into this world. Before I could even say my own name, Dad runs for the hills, no note, no apology, no contact at all. He changes his name to Bill Marsh and starts over. At least, he thinks he's starting over."

Anton turned to his Father.

"Life has no reset button, Dad. Did you really think that changing a few words and moving away would make me disappear?"

"Anton, please, you have to understand, I-I was almost your age when we got the results. I-I never meant to…"

"Meanwhile, little Anton grows up with a Mother who treats him like a parasite. No, she doesn't get a better job to feed him when he's hungry, she sticks with the same one and gives him the leftovers. Half of an apple for dinner, week old oatmeal for breakfast. When he asks for more, he gets a spanking. She puts him in the cheapest schools, and sometimes forgets to pick him up. He has to walk home in the pouring rain, because she's too busy."

He then turned to Trent.

"Busy with a guy nine years younger than her. A guy who's been nowhere and isn't going anywhere. Despite his less-than-promising future, he still sees it fit to tell Anton how much of a bum he is. 'Why don't you get a job, Anton? Don't you love your Mother?' he says."

Trent was trembling with anger.

"You little punk, I'll rip you to pieces when I get out of here!" he roared, wrestling with the bindings on his hands.

Alice stopped crying long enough to scold her son.

"Anton! You stop it, right now! I am your _Mother_! I raised you from birth, giving you food off of my plate! I loved you!"

Anton turned to his Mother and smiled warmly.

"That's sweet of you."

Maxwell spoke up.

"Anton, what is it you want? Do you want money? I can pay for college! I'll get you anything you want, just name it!"

Anton shook his head solemnly, then rubbed his hands together and grinned.

"How about we get this party started, huh?"

He turned to the table behind him and reached beneath it. Grunting slightly, he pulled out a heavy metal tin, a large yellow nozzle protruding from the top. Slamming it onto the table with gusto, he put his hands on his hips.

"This brings back memories, doesn't it, Trent?"

The three adults felt their stomachs drop as they read the tin.

GASOLINE: FLAMMABLE!

Anton grabbed the tin and held it over Maxwell. A stream of clear, odorous fluid poured from the nozzle directly onto his head, making him cough and splutter. After he was sufficiently soaked, Anton did the same to the others, Alice whimpering and Trent trying his best to keep a poker face.

Anton set the now half-empty tin on the table and withdrew a small booklet of matches from the lone drawer.

"Normally, I'd just snap my fingers, but I think we should celebrate the old fashioned way." Anton said.

Maxwell couldn't take it anymore.

"What do you think you're going to gain from this, Anton? Vengeance? Respect? PAH! You'll be executed!"

Anton struck the match, and a small flame fizzed to life. He teasingly waved it about before blowing it out.

"You're not avenging anybody, Anton! You're victimizing three law-abiding citizens! You're going to regret this for the rest of your life, and the only place you'll have left to turn is the asylum!"

"What are you talking about?" Anton inquired with amusement. "What, you think I'm going all Count of Monte Cristo on you because Mama never wuved me?" he finished in a baby-like tone of voice.

"No, I just wanted to get you guys together for my party. But since you wouldn't accept my invitation otherwise, I had to make you come here. I would've burned down this hunk of drywall today regardless, but since you're already here and I don't feel like untying you…"

Anton trailed away as he busily picked up the can of gas and splashed a few more spots around the room before creating a long trail down the stairs of the building, walking backwards carefully. As the last drop of ripe-scented fluid hit the floor, Anton tossed the empty can over his shoulder and took out his book of matches again. Pausing to listen to the pleading upstairs for a moment longer, he struck the match.

"Happy Birthday, Dear Anton…" he sang under his breath, extending his arm out over the gas.

"Happy Birthday…" his grip on the lit match lessened.

"To…"

*SCREECH*

The T-Car squealed to a halt on the frozen pavement, skidding forward a good ways before finally managing to stop.

Robin had pieced together the mystery just a few hours after the anonymous tip, discovering who the people spoken of were and tracking down the abandoned barn they now sat beside. It was a good ways out of town, almost a half hour long drive into the countryside, but after an old couple had telephoned the police that they saw a strange man driving people with bags on their heads towards the property, the Titans were there in fifteen minutes.

"No one move yet." Robin ordered, holding a finger in the air. Taking another moment to glance at the barn, he turned in the passenger seat to look at everyone.

"The situation is different this time around. Weatherman's got hostages with him, and I don't know what he'll do if he gets to them before we do." He said. "That noise the tires just made will probably distract him for a moment, and one of us has to sneak in there and get them to safety."

Robin turned to Raven and looked her dead in the eye.

"Raven, I'd normally nominate you, but I think your current health situation would blow your cover." He said.

Raven glowered at him. "Just because I'm congested doesn't mean I… He-TSCHEW!" she couldn't finish her sentence before she was overtaken, bucking forward and sneezing into her hands.

"My point exactly." Robin concluded. "Beast Boy, looks like you're her understudy."

"No problemo, compadre." Beast Boy replied with a thumbs-up.

Starfire made a startled noise and pointed out the window.

"He emerges!" she said.

The double doors had begun to creak open.

"Everyone quiet. That goes double for you, Raven." Robin said, ignoring the sigh of discontent from the sorceress behind him.

"Uh oh." Cyborg uttered.

A being stood in the ajar doorway. It was cloaked in a rippling, cerulean blaze, and as the snow around its feet melted, it became clear that it was a shroud of fire. Shutting the door and leaving singed fingerprints on the wood, the creature tilted its head to one side, silently observing the parked vehicle. It remained motionless for a few moments longer before it raised a single finger in their direction. Expecting the worst, the Titans were alarmed that the fire creature simply waved its finger in a 'no no no' motion before quietly returning into the barn.

Robin turned to Beast Boy. "Spider."

The green teen nodded, turning to look at his friends individually before shrinking down into a tiny green and black spider and clambered up the window, Robin opening a tiny sliver for him to slip out of, and he wiggled through the crevice out into the cold air.

"Best of luck."

"Watch your back."

"Remember your training."

"Focus."

Beast Boy hopped down onto the freezing ground and began to scurry towards the door. Despite having eight legs, it was going to be a hike. He could see in every direction as a spider, so he could keep on moving without having to waste time turning his head. Almost a half-minute later, he reached the door, the wood being about a half inch off the ground, easy for a spider to slip through. Pausing and tentatively clicking his pincers together, he held his breath and wriggled under the door.

The fire creature, which Beast Boy presumed was Anton Scissors, was there to greet him. Standing a few paces away from the door, its fiery fists were clenched together. Thankfully, it seemed to not notice Beast Boy, and he made his way out of its line of vision. He noticed a set of stairs about five meters away, and also picked up on the oppressive odor of gasoline. He flinched when a droplet about the size of his entire body came splashing down on top of him. He would have gagged on the hideous smell if he had the reflex to do so. Giving his head a quick shake to get the gas out of his many eyes, he crawled towards the staircase, the fire golem having not moved an inch, staring eyelessly at the door.

Making his way to the stairs, he found the odor all the more pungent, as the stairs were soaked with the stuff. Choosing instead to climb up the wall, he trundled up the stairs until he reached the second floor.

Three people were tied up in individual chairs, a man in what looked like pajamas and a pair of glasses, a blonde woman with a stream of mascara filled tears down each check, and a bald redneck in a jean jacket.

So these were Weatherman's guardians. They didn't seem like they would be the creators of a demented force of destruction, but he was bad with first impressions.

At the sound of an impatient snort from downstairs, it became clear that he needed to hustle. Turning into a cat, he loped quickly over to the three terrified hostages and morphed back into his human form behind them.

"Don't scream." He whispered. "I'm gonna get you three out of here."

The woman, Alice was it? The woman gasped sharply, and Beast Boy felt like hitting her . What did I _just_ tell you, genius?!

Working as fast as he could without rousing suspicion, he grabbed Alice's hands and took the wire binding them between his fangs, biting down and severing the cord.

"Don't move." He whispered, a little harsher sounding than he meant to, but she had nearly gave him away. Gingerly, he grabbed the bald man's wrists and managed to chew through those wires as well.

He did the same to the man with glasses and leaned in towards the three of them, still staying behind them.

"Do you know if there's a way out up here?" he murmured.

He was given shaking heads across the board, and he frowned. Crap, this was going to be hairy.

"Okay, everyone stay put. I'm gonna-"

All sound seemed to stop when Beast Boy found the fire creature hovering a few inches off of the ground in the staircase landing, staring straight at him. Alice let out a shriek of terror and hid behind him, despite her being a good deal taller than him. The bald man, who Beast Boy assumed must be Trent, made a dash towards the fire creature, retracting a pipe wrench from his pocket and raising it in the air, roaring like a gladiator. Before the changeling even had the chance to warn him, he was hoisted up into the air and hurled down the stairs, his collar on fire.

Alice swooned, landing on the fuel-saturated ground with a wet flop. The Scissors-Creature turned back to the others.

"_Time to light the candles._" It hissed, raising a hand in the air and clenching it into a fist.

Beast Boy readied himself, but both of them were caught off guard by a sudden explosion from downstairs.

Fire raced up the stairs like an angry lynch mob. Smoke crept up from the floorboards, as the dried hay down there caught fire instantly.

"Everyone OUT!" Beast Boy cried, grabbing Alice off of the ground and morphing into a bull, the unconscious woman on his back. Scuffing at the floor with a hoof, he charged at the wall, busting through the dry wood and flying forward several feet before slamming into the ground, Alice tumbling off of his bag and rolling through the snow like a rag doll, still out cold. Maxwell appeared in the opening Beast Boy created, and, hesitating for a moment, leapt into the freezing air.

He was halted mid-fall by a burning arm grabbing his collar. He attempted to squirm free, but was being pulled back faster than he could fight. Beast Boy scrambled to his feet, but was once again beaten to the punch.

Trent, his beard partially burnt off and his eyes red from smoke, clubbed the fiery fiend over the head with his trusty wrench, his back ablaze. Knocking him forward, both Maxwell and the Scissors-Creature fell forward and landed in the snow, Maxwell having to scramble out from under the heavy, alight body atop him. Trent leapt from the hole and landed right next to Anton, raising his wrench to finish the job. His wrist was caught mid-swing by another hand.

"You're on fire, Mr. Crowley." Robin said firmly. Trent hadn't even noticed that he was on fire, and let out an angry bellow and hit the ground to snuff the fire out.

The other Titans rounded the side of the barn, Cyborg and Starfire working to pacify Weatherman, Raven gliding straight toward Beast Boy and punching him in the shoulder.

"You IDIOT!"

"OW! Jesus, Rae! What was that?!" he demanded, clutching his shoulder and stumbling backwards. Raven moved toward him again, and he raised his hands defensively.

"You were supposed to be stealthy! I thought you were gone…" she snapped, eventually sagging her shoulders and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Hey, I was plenty stealthy, _they _were the loud ones." Beast Boy said, gesturing to the hostages. Alice had finally came to, and looked around, snow clinging to her face. Maxwell and Trent were busy putting out the flames persistently clinging to their clothes, Trent eventually taking his shirt off entirely despite the freezing temperatures. Anton had reverted back to his normal form, his arms restrained by Cyborg.

"What did you think, guys? Party wild enough for you?" he said, laughing churlishly. Trent made a threatening motion towards him, but opted to not try anything. Then Anton noticed Raven.

"Hey HEY, the guest of honor arrives!" he bellowed. "Like the fireworks, gorgeous?"

Beast Boy turned to Raven. "Now aren't you glad you didn't have to go in there alone with him?"

Raven gave her boyfriend a harsh look. "Are you saying I wouldn't have been able to hold my own against him?" she said coolly. "You narrowly made it out yourself."

Beast Boy looked over to the now smoldering barn, and the roof collapsed in on itself, charred hay floating lazily into the air.

"No one was using this place, anyway." Beast Boy said, grinning.

Raven rolled her eyes, then took his hand and marched him back to the others.

***A/N* And then Raven slugged Anton in the face. Feh... if only. This was a tricky chapter to write, and I hoped y'all, especially Kaarlinaa, enjoyed it. College work is a bear, lemme tell you. But the next story is going to be up a different alley. Readers beware, you're in for a scare, as longtime fan JasonVUK and I worked out a horror themed BBRae story with a _very_ special guest. I'll give you a hint... his name is hidden somewhere in this chapter. See you next time, kiddies! *A/N***


	9. Wrap-Around

***A/N* On the contrary, these interludes are always pretty easy to write, and I like adding more and more depth to the wrap-around story. *A/N***

"Did we ever find out who left that anonymous tip? Robin said the voice sounded really familiar." Beast Boy inquired.

"Who knows?" Raven said, noticing the empty glass in Beast Boy's hands. "You want another drink?"

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow. "Okay, but only if you get yourself one." He said, with a playful undertone in his voice. Raven gave him a smirk.

"You honestly think you're going to get me to drink too much? I know my limits, Garfield."

"What, you can only handle one drink? Jeez, there's lightweights, then there's not weighing anything at all!" Beast Boy goaded.

Raven stood up swiftly and snatched the glass from his hand. "If I make you something else, you have to go outside and greet the others after you drink it."

"Deal. If you come with me." He replied.

"Not a problem." The two shook hands.

The two went back inside, Beast Boy going to sit down in one of the squishy armchairs and Raven going to the kitchenette, taking out two glasses and selecting the appropriate bottles for her next concoction.

"I think that was most nervous I've ever been, going into that barn by myself." Beast Boy confessed as Raven started put ice into the glasses.

"Oh, really? What about what happened last June?" she challenged.

"That was actually pretty awesome in retrospect… but yeah, I get where you're coming from."

Raven stopped working to gaze sternly at her boyfriend. "Innocent people losing their lives isn't 'awesome.' Tact, Garfield, look into it."

"Oh come on, Rae, you know I didn't mean it like that. Of course that part was terrible, but it was awesome that we put a stop to it."

Raven removed her left glove and stared down at the scar left there. "I suppose…"

***A/N* Raven was scarred both physically and mentally from that event, and it managed to scare even her. What was this event? Who inflicted the wound? Who committed the murders most foul? Tune in next time, same Bat-time, same Bat... er...wait... just, uh... just tune in next time. And brace yourselves, this is gonna be full on horrorshow, as a tribute to JasonVUK! Stay scared, kiddies! *A/N***


	10. Mama's Boy: Part 1

***A/N* A word of warning. This story contains violence, and a lot of it. Granted, a good chunk of it is over the top, but the squeamish should tread carefully, things are gonna get a little visceral 'round here. I know what I said about crossovers, but due to my rampant passion for horror films, and the fact that I thought the idea out with a longtime fan of my work, JasonVUK, I feel like this will eat me alive if I keep it inside. As I said, same BBRae, just with some squicky moments. Enjoy! *A/N***

"No, no! Please! Please, I have a family, don't do this, no!"

A hulking murderer, clad in umpire's armor, advanced towards Leanne, clutching his weapon, a baseball bat with nails hammered into the end. Leanne tried fruitlessly to open the door behind her.

"HELP! SOMEBODY!" she shrieked, pounding on the door for any help that might lie on the other side. The murderer wound up and swung the club with all his might.

"Alright, _cut_!"

Leanne took a deep breath and slumped down onto her rear.

"Nice take." Ted, the stuntman playing the murderer, removed his mask and smiled at the actress.

"Phew, it better have been, I don't think I can scream like that again." Leanne replied, grinning and massaging her throat.

"Alright, guys!" The director, Bryce Ng, a young Asian-American man in a baseball cap and jacket, applauded and slapped them both on the back.

"I can see it now, Leanne Bradley, the new Jamie Lee Curtis!" he said melodramatically.

"Oh, stop it, you flirt." Leanne smacked the director playfully.

"Ted, again, your body language. A-maziiing!" Bryce cried. "You ready to knock the head off of a few dummies for me?"

"Damn right."

"Awesome. Leanne, you're done for the night, you want to stick around and watch your decapitation?"

"Tempting," Leanne replied sarcastically, "But I promised I'd give my Mom a call today, and it's getting late. You mind if I step out?"

"Go for it. Just tell C.J. whenever you're ready to get a lift back home. See you tomorrow!"

Bryce gave her a final proud smile before turning back to the set.

"Where are the make-up boys? It's time to bust some heads!" he called out, moving to talk with a grip.

"See you tomorrow, Ted." Leanne said.

"Later." The gentle giant replied, placing his prop weapon on his shoulder.

Leanne exited the brightly lit studio and stepped out into the quiet street. It had rained a few hours before, and a light fog hovered over the pavement. It would have felt eerie if Leanne hadn't walked this street dozens of times already.

She removed her cell phone from her purse and hit her Mom's speed dial.

"Hi! I just got off work. How's Dad? Sounds like an improvement. Yeah, sorry, I'm just a little hoarse, Bryce had me squawking like a parrot."

She heard a small crash a few meters away in the shadows. Turning briefly with mild interest, she found an overturned garbage can and heard rapidly receding footsteps.

"Huh? No, sorry, crew guy distracted me. Yes, I have. _Yes_, Mom. Mom, the more you ask, the less willing I am to do it. Of course."

Unbeknownst to her, someone was still watching her from the shadows. Heavy, raspy breath whistled from behind a worn mask.

"Who? With _Ted_? No, Mom! Mom, this is a professional relationship, I'm not Paris Hilton! Oh, I'm going to tell him you said that. Yes I will, you know I will. Don't challenge me, woman!"

She paused when she heard the footsteps make their return. Glancing up, she gasped sharply.

A hulking man, easily six and a half feet tall, stood near her. He wore an intricate costume that seemed familiar to Leanne.

"Oh, Jesus, you scared me!" Leanne said, laughing. "No, Mom, not you. There's a guy here in great make-up, he got me good."

She looked over his appearance.

"Wait, don't tell me, you're… no, not Michael Myers…" She snapped her fingers rapidly to try and remember what the character's name was.

"Mom, help me out, what's the name of that guy from all the summer camp movies?"

The 'guy in make-up' remained ramrod straight, his entire upper body heaving in and out from his breathing. He never broke eye contact with Leanne's face, his head swiveling like a security camera following an intruder as the actress paced back and forth.

"No, Mom, not Kevin Bacon, the horror movies! Come on, you took me to see one when I was eight! The ugly guy with the big knife and-"

Leanne yelped when she felt her phone get snatched out of her hand. The man now held it rigidly up to his face, and promptly crushed it in one fist, shards of the screen raining down onto the pavement and the spent machinery fizzling and sparking. He dropped the scrap onto the ground, and turned again to face Leanne.

She took a few steps back and carefully reached into her purse, feeling around for the can of mace she brought with her for safety. The stranger drew closer, maintaining his unshakeable stare. Leanne finally felt the small cylinder at the bottom of her bag and wrenched it out of her handbag, scattering other items she kept inside everywhere. She aimed and sprayed directly into one of the mask's eyeholes.

The man briefly stumbled backwards, but regained his composure in a matter of moments. Leanne barely had time to scream before he was upon her. He bodily hoisted her into the air with one arm about the neck, and ended her choked shrieking by pile driving her into the street behind him, head first.

After a hideous crunch and an ear-splitting crack as her legs bent over her head, her foot twitched once or twice before she stopped moving for good.

"Leanne?"

The murderer glanced up sharply and saw another man exiting the studio a few paces away in an umpire's outfit, a baseball bat over his shoulder.

"Leanne, Bryce said you forg-"

His stomach constricted at the sight of his friends misshapen corpse and a hulking man in a hockey mask staring directly at him.

"Mary, Mother of God!" he cried, hurrying back to the door. Unfortunately, in his shock, he allowed the door to close, and it locked automatically to prevent intruders.

"BRYCE! THERE'S A KILLER OUT HERE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, banging and kicking on the door. He turned to see where the assailant had gone, and instinctively flung himself onto the banister behind him when he found him just three feet away.

In a fit of desperation, Ted seized his bat and swung it with all the force he could muster, aiming for the man's head. The balsa wood shattered and the rubber prop nails flew everywhere as the end of the bat exploded against the juggernaut's head.

The man stomped on Ted's feet, trapping him in place, and forced his back against the banister. In a gasping moan, Ted was bent over the metal railing backwards, his spine cracking like a tree branch as his upper body was pushed downward.

The killer took a few steps back to examine his work, Ted now hanging over the banister like a broken slinky. After a few moments, he turned and trudged away.

"I don't do blood."

Beast Boy was looking a bit greener than usual as the Titans stood inside Kilobyte Studios. They had been called down to help with a double homicide that had just been reported. Even though the Titans normally avoided homicide cases, the police often called them down anyway due to Robin's superior detective skills and the others' other helpful traits.

Raven gave her boyfriend a look. "What do you mean? Didn't you just watch the entire Hatchet Trilogy?"

"Yeah, but that isn't _real_ blood, that's all corn syrup and latex." Beast Boy defended.

"Well, they need our help. Man up." Raven said, tugging Beast Boy over to the others, who were talking with Lt. Wynorski.

"We got two victims, Leanne Nightly and Ted Green, an actress and stuntman. They were killed within the same time frame, both of them with broken spines."

Robin turned and bent down to the bag Leanne's body lay under, and gingerly removed it. Beast Boy fought off his gag reflex at the sight of the mangled woman.

"From the look of her skull, it looks like she hit the ground headfirst. Is it possible that she jumped from the roof?"

"There doesn't appear to be any way to get up onto the roof, nor are there any windows to jump from. Look at her neck."

Beast Boy had to look away when Robin rolled her head over, revealing a raw handprint and a heavily crushed cheekbone.

"We're thinking the assailant picked her up about the neck and threw her bodily into the ground. We're unsure of how this person could have been that strong. No prints."

"Do you have a motive? Was there anyone Leanne was enemies with, or any reports of stalking?" Robin inquired, standing up.

"There hasn't been anything until now… and every member of the cast and crew were confirmed to be inside at the time of the incident, so it had to have been a stranger." The lieutenant turned to Cyborg. "We have a sample we need you to analyze."

Cyborg was handed a small baggy of what appeared to be dirt. "We found this in a footprint. Work boots, Men's Size 15."

Cyborg placed his fingertip on the substance inside and extracted a small amount. After a pause and some electronic beeping, he got the results.

"Its soil typical to the area, but judging from the heavy algae concentration, I'm thinking it came from the bed of a lake." He concluded.

Raven spoke up. "The only lake nearby is the one in Greengrass Park."

Cyborg narrowed his eye, his cybernetic one flashing briefly. "Hang on, Lake Greengrass is also pretty polluted, too. The sample I got was almost completely clean, there's no way that sample could have come out of the lake that distilled."

Robin furrowed his brow.

"That doesn't make any sense. There aren't any other lakes around Jump City. And that sample you got looked pretty fresh to me. How was our guy already wet with foreign water?"

Lt. Wynorski began scribbling on his notepad.

"So we've got a heavy built person strong enough to break bones with their bare hands, who had recently been submerged in lake water that can't be found in the city, with no clear motive." The Lieutenant sighed and tucked his pen into the front pocket of his uniform. "If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears."

"Was there anything stolen from this establishment?" Starfire suggested.

"We talked with the head of security, and he claims that nothing's missing." The Lieutenant said.

Beast Boy, who had been avoiding having to talk for fear of losing his dinner, suddenly had an idea.

"Wait a minute, these two were working on a Bryce Ng movie, right? He's been doing a lot of throwback slashers for a while now. Maybe we're dealing with some psycho who started to imitate what he saw on screen."

The Lieutenant paused for a moment. "That isn't too far-fetched. There have been a good deal of hoodlums using recent films as an excuse to commit crime." Wynorski took out his pen and pad and scratched an extra note underneath the others. As he finished, a sergeant approached him with a hollow look in her eye.

"Lieutenant? We've… we've got another one." She said gravely.

"What?! When, where?" her superior demanded.

"We just got a call from a few college kids, they found an older woman pinned to a tree with nails near Toluca Hall."

"That's only a few miles from here…" Wynorski then turned to the Titans. "Listen, we need you to sweep the streets for any suspicious activity, we'll take care of the poor woman in the tree. If you see anything, and I mean _anything _at all, contact me."

"Absolutely, Lieutenant. We've got it covered." Robin affirmed. The Lieutenant issued a quick thank you before hustling the rest of the officers on duty out the back door of the Studio, leaving the forensics personnel to take care of the crime scene. Robin led the Titans out the front entrance.

"Alright, team. We need to fan out and find this lunatic before he gets his paws on someone else. We need to search every alley, every building and parking lot with a fine tooth comb. Leave no stone unturned, got me?"

"Uh, Dude?" Beast Boy interjected.

"Starfire, we need you to be our Eagle Eye, keep yourself high in the air. We're gonna start with the Entertainment District, since we're already here."

"Dude!"

"I'll take the North Side, Cyborg, you go West, Raven, South-"

"DUDE."

"_What, _Beast Boy?!" Robin bellowed, finally giving in to the changeling's repeated demands.

"That guy over there's been staring at us since we left Kilobyte." He said, jerking his head to his right.

The others turned to look. Sure enough, a man stood a few paces in front of a street lamp a block away from the group. The light silhouetted him, but he had an unmistakably massive frame. His hands were held rigidly by his sides, and he breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling in a deliberate rhythm.

"So? We kind of stick out in public, you know." Cyborg replied. "For all we know, he wants an autograph."

Beast Boy wrinkled his nose. "He also smells dead."

"What do you mean by dead?" Starfire inquired, now becoming nervous.

"Forget it, Star. Beast Boy has a heightened sense of smell, remember? He probably smells his body odor or something." Robin dismissed.

"I know the difference between B.O. and decay, thanks." Beast Boy said coldly. "And _that _guy smells dead." he affirmed.

They took another moment to look back at their silent spectator. He hadn't budged in the slightest.

"Would it hurt to at least tell him to go away? He's weirding me out." Beast Boy insisted.

Robin heaved a large sigh, and stepped a few paces toward the stranger.

"Sir? We have everything under control here, please move along." He called out begrudgingly.

Silence. The man remained in place.

"Sir? Did you hear me?"

This time the person moved, giving a small tilt of the head to his left.

"Take a hike, Dude!" Beast Boy called out, both impatient and nervous. Raven smacked him upside the head.

The stranger adjusted his head back to its original place, and began walking forward. A heavy squelching noise muffled his footsteps.

"Smooth, Beastie." Cyborg said flatly. Robin rounded on the changeling.

"Beast Boy, what have I told you about-"

Robin found himself cut off by a strange, echoing noise.

"Ki ki ki…ma ma ma…"

The man across the street approached them, and had finally stepped into the light. His work clothes were soaked and looked to be in a bad state of disrepair. His skin was grey, hairless, and clammy, with bits and pieces missing to reveal atrophied muscle and bone. Over his face, he wore a faded, grimy hockey mask, the top left corner bearing a large, slit shaped puncture. As he approached, the other Titans now understood what Beast Boy meant about his odor. He stank of rotting flesh and putrid mud.

He reached Robin, towering over him in size and girth. Beast Boy impulsively took a few steps back from the giant.

The man stopped to size all five of the Titans up. Beast Boy frantically whispered something to Raven.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?!" Raven nodded, but couldn't bring herself to believe it.

Jason Voorhees stood in front of the Teen Titans.

He moved to grab something dangling off of his belt. What looked like a small tangle of filthy cloth was revealed to be an ancient sheath, and he extracted a rusty, serrated hunting knife from it.

Robin leapt into action immediately.

"Titans! GO!"

Jason swung his knife with alarming speed, Robin just barely having enough time to duck out of the way and punch him in the stomach. Without flinching, Jason replied with an uppercut to the hero's jaw, knocking him backwards. Cyborg drew his blaster, but found himself in the line of another punch from Jason. Catching his fist with both hands, he felt himself pushed back from the sheer momentum of the attack. Jason raised his knife into the air, and Cyborg snatched his wrist with his right hand, keeping his left on Jason's other fist.

Starfire hurled a starbolt at the killer, hitting him in the ribcage. The explosion knocked Jason onto the street, and Cyborg hurried over to him. Aiming for his face, Cyborg tried to stomp on him while he was down, but Jason caught his foot mid-stomp.

"How…strong…is…this…guy?!" Cyborg bellowed through clenched teeth.

Jason managed to throw his foot out of the way and stand up, seizing Cyborg's waist. Incredibly, he managed to hoist him into the air and hurl him a few paces away.

Robin reappeared and hit Jason in the temple with his staff. The giant turned around, and Robin responded by performing a quick combo to his legs, attempting to bring him down. To no avail, Jason simply snatched the staff away from Robin and broke it in two over his knee.

"Oh, come on!" Robin yelled. Jason tossed one half of the staff to his side and brandished the other like a spear, the broken end pointed and dangerous.

Starfire, refusing to let the killer lay another finger on her beloved, flung a starbolt at the killer's back. To her pleasure, it knocked him off of his feet, but to her horror, he had been sent flying straight at Robin. The two collided, Robin falling onto his back as all of Jason's weight crashed onto his chest, knocking the wind out of him instantly. Jason whirled about to look at Starfire and tossed the broken staff at her. The blunt end hit her square in the forehead, causing her to yelp and come closer to the ground. Seeing his chance, Jason got to his feet and grabbed the Tamaranian's neck. Starfire couldn't even yell for help as she felt Jason's iron fingers tighten around her trachea.

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Jason turned to see Raven hovering a few feet off of the ground, eyes aglow and arms outstretched. She levitated a nearby dumpster into the air.

Jason let Starfire go instantly, snatching the other end of Robin's broken staff off of the street.

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

As Raven threw the dumpster, Jason threw the staff. Neither of them made it out of the way in time to avoid the opposition's assault.

Jason was flattened by the dumpster, the heavy metal container slamming into his face and torso, pushing him onto his back and landing on him with the shriek of metal and a sickening crunch, garbage flying in every direction.

Raven had been too focused on Jason to notice the projectile. Reflexively holding her hands out in front of her, the broken metal staff pierced the palm of her left hand. The momentum of the projectile forced the metal straight through the back of her hand, effectively impaling it.

Raven's mind didn't quite register what had just happened, the adrenaline numbing the impact. She turned her hand backward and forward, confirming her suspicion, it had gone all the way through. Blood dribbled from around the staff, and Raven impulsively grabbed it. With a nauseating *SHLUCK* noise, she pulled it out, blood erupting from the wound. Raven dropped the shrapnel to the pavement, where it clanged noisily.

Beast Boy still hadn't turned around, staring at the non-moving body of Jason.

"Wow, Raven, I don't think he's getting back-"

He turned to look at her, and found her gaping at her mangled hand with wide, shocked eyes.

Beast Boy made a weak gagging noise.

"G…g…GUUUUUUUUYYYYYYYYSSSSS!"

***A/N* That's... gonna leave a mark. *A/N***


	11. Mama's Boy: Part 2

***A/N* This chapter was unusually fun to write. A small word of warning, there's a level of sauciness in this Chapter. Nothing graphic, just a pretty girl with a small amount of clothes. Why? Now what Jason Voorhees story would be complete without a little foxy action sprinkled in? If you're wondering about the song lyrics, I included that as a farcical nod to songfics. Songs with subject matter consistent to what goes on with the story, but are upbeat and happy in nature. Enjoy, I certainly did. *A/N* **

"There's nothing to see! Please step away from the tape!"

Officers tried in vain to push the surging crowd of reporters and gawking spectators back. There had been an uproar after word got out that the Teen Titans had gone up against a serial killer, and there was practically an explosion when they found out that there had been a fatality. Rumors spread like a virus, some claimed that one of the Titans had been killed, others said the murder may have been premeditated. Of course, they weren't permitted the truth, so they scrambled for any visual evidence they could scrape up at the scene itself. People gasped and shouted when they saw two paramedics hastily carrying the body of a gigantic person into the back of an ambulance, one fetid arm dangling from under the sheet.

Raven stopped herself from gasping in pain as her hand was painstakingly stitched shut by a paramedic.

"You're _hurting _her!" Beast Boy protested.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Logan, but it has to be done." The paramedic replied patiently.

"Well, can't you give her a Valium or morphine or something?" Beast Boy insisted, and he found himself being touched on the arm comfortingly by Raven herself.

"I'm alright, Garfield."

Beast Boy shook his head indignantly. "Like HELL you are!"

"Mr. Logan, I must ask you to control yourself." The paramedic ordered. "Raven is going to be fine, there's no need to get overexcited."

Beast Boy swallowed the retort he had ready, and made the mistake of looking down at Raven's marred palm, halfway through being sewn shut. Immediately, his stomach lurched, and he clapped a gloved hand over his mouth and stumbled out of the ambulance. Fleeing a good distance away, he practically fell onto a nearby waste bin and heaved into it, emptying the contents of his stomach in one giant reflex. Coughing and falling to his knees, he slammed both of his fists on the pavement.

"You _idiot!_"

Raven heard him yell and sighed deeply. "He blames himself." She explained

"He's quite devoted." The paramedic, a middle-aged African American woman, noted as she continued sewing up Raven's hand.

"You have no idea. You should see him when I get sick." Raven replied, before wincing in pain again. "But… in all seriousness, could I have some pain killers if at all possible? This is really starting to hurt."

The paramedic nodded. "Would Tramadol be alright? You don't have any allergies, do you?"

"No, but they do fatigue me."

The paramedic set her tools down and took a small bottle from the cabinet nearby, taking out a capsule and handing it to Raven, who swallowed it dry.

"I'll give you the bottle, I'll send the paperwork to you later. Take one every 4-6 hours, and don't operate any heavy machinery, these could make you tired."

"Thank you very much." Raven said. "Is all of this legal?"

"For the most part."

The paramedic resumed her work as Cyborg approached the ambulance.

"How you holdin' up, Rae?" he inquired.

"Never better." Raven drawled. "How're the others?"

"Robin is talking to the Lieutenant like usual, Star went to go talk to some reporters."

Raven then bit her lip and mustered up the courage to ask the pressing question.

"What about… him?"

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Well… he..."

Raven felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, but Cyborg interjected.

"Raven, it was him or us. That guy didn't want anything other than our heads stuck on pikes, and he wasn't going to stop. Did you hear that they found another body in a garbage can? That's four people in the span of, what, an hour? No one blames you for what you did, you had every right to defend us. In fact, the Lieutenant's thinking of issuing you some sort of medal."

Raven sighed. Sure, it had been justified, but it still made her feel guilty for doing it. Psychotic murderer or not, he was only human like her. A human in a Jason Voorhees outfit.

…Was it an outfit?

It certainly _looked_ real enough, down to the chain around his neck, to the bits and pieces missing from his skin… make-up, to the chewed up, peeling hockey mask. He smelled real, reeking of foul, stagnant water and decay. He sounded real, she had heard the echoing whisper just as well as the others, and it was perfectly executed. He definitely felt real, her hand could attest to that.

Beast Boy made his return, giving Cyborg a quick hello before returning to Raven's side.

"Mr. Logan, you can leave if the blood is too much for you." The paramedic stated. The only response she received was a resolute frown.

"B, come on. Let the Doctor do her thing." Cyborg coaxed. "She needs to-"

"_Don't _order me around, Metal-Head." The changeling snapped.

Cyborg knew there was no changing his mind after that. Raven began to feel the effects of her pain medication, and quietly laid herself down on the cot she rested on as her eyes became heavy. Beast Boy placed a hand on her forehead, then glanced up at Cyborg irately.

"Alright, I got it. Down, boy." Cyborg groaned, and he made his exit. The cybernetic teen always found it irritating whenever Beast Boy did this. Granted, he understood _why_ he was protective, but he wouldn't even let his closest friends near her without eyeballing them like a cranky Rottweiler. If he acted this way when Raven wasn't too weak to retaliate, he would have no teeth left to bare.

Cyborg approached Robin and Lt. Wynorski, the two engaged in a quiet, important conversation.

"The suspect's boot-print matched the one at the Studio, and the lake-water is a positive, too. This was our guy. But… there's something that troubles me."

"And that is?" Robin queried.

"Well, we just had the lab boys take a sample of his skin. They told me that there was nobody in the Station's computer with matching DNA, and even then, it was decayed to the point of being nearly useless. This guy was a ghost, he's John Doe."

"Did you take off his mask?"

The Lieutenant escorted Robin and the now interested Cyborg to the ambulance where they put the murderer's body. Inviting them into the back, he took the sheet and pulled it away from the cadaver's face.

The partially rotted visage was a catastrophe, an overly large, hairless skull with a misshapen face. One eye appeared to have been punctured, the other eye was lopsided and gazed lazily to the side. There was a small hole where the nose should have been, and the mouth was dominated by a jutting overbite, forcing it open partially and revealing filthy, jagged teeth,

"Damn. Raven really did a number on him." Cyborg muttered.

"Actually, this appears to be a natural deformity, with necrosis included." Wynorski corrected.

Robin put a hand on his hip. "Let's see, here… a deformed, heavily built, undead thug with misguided bloodlust, inhuman strength, and a hockey mask."

Cyborg scoffed. "That's the definition of Jason Voorhees."

"Yeah, but he's a work of fiction."

Robin felt a light bulb switch on in his head.

"Hang on… that means someone could have brought him to life."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Control Freak?"

"That's a possibility. But if we had defeated Jason as he is now, he would've turned to dust by now if Control Freak brought him to life."

"So… what are you saying? Is he still alive?" The two of them glanced down at the hideous, unmoving body cautiously.

"He's showing no vital signs at all, Mr. Grayson. No breathing, reflexes, heartbeat, nothing." Wynorski said.

"I need to talk to Raven, she's the expert on this kind of thing." Robin declared, moving to exit the vehicle.

"Wouldn't do that." Cyborg warned quickly.

"What'd you say?"

"I said, don't do it. Raven's all doped up from painkillers right now, and Beast Boy's ready to nip your heels if you try to wake her up."

Robin frowned. "Ah, that's right. She needs her rest anyway." Robin turned to the Lieutenant.

"You can go ahead and take…Jason to the morgue. We're done for now." Robin was admittedly uncomfortable calling the body 'Jason.' It seemed childish to call a serial killer the moniker of a fictional character, but what else could they call him?

The press was eventually satiated after a thorough Q&A with Robin and Starfire, who put the outrageous rumors to rest and cleared Raven's name. They refused to tell anyone of the possibility that the murderer was actually Jason Voorhees, they simply stated he was using his M.O. and wearing an elaborate costume.

The site was soon cleared, and Raven's hand was finally stitched back up. Thanks to the helpful paramedic and Raven's own healing magic, it had gone smoothly and faster than average, most of the tissue piecing itself back together, the rest held together by stitches, the surgery still leaving a long, ghoulish scar on both sides of her hand. Beast Boy refused to leave her side even for a moment. Jason's body was soon carted away, and the Titans were given one last expression of gratitude from the police before they were given permission to head home.

It had grown late, reaching a few minutes after midnight when Cyborg parked the T-Car in the garage.

Raven had slumped over onto Beast Boy's shoulder on the ride home, succumbing to the side effects of her painkillers and falling asleep, her hood pulled over her eyes to block out the lights. He smiled and gently jostled her shoulder.

"Raven? Baby, I'm gonna take you to bed now, okay?" he cooed.

"You know she'd never let you talk to her like that if she wasn't half comatose." Robin quipped.

"I know. I'm enjoying it while it lasts." Beast Boy replied in the same tone of voice. He exited the vehicle and took Raven's good hand, helping her out of the car, but she pulled away. Now standing, she took a step forward, only to stumble.

"Woah, woah. I gotcha." Beast Boy took her right arm and slung it over his shoulder, giving her some support, wrapping his other arm about her waist.

"Cut that out…" she demanded wearily, her heavy lidded eyes briefly flashing with annoyance.

"Shush. Walk with me." Beast Boy chided, escorting her to the elevator carefully. Starfire began giggling at the adorable scene, Cyborg and Robin exchanging mischievous looks.

"You think we should tape this?" Cyborg asked.

"I think I'd rather take my chances with Jason again."

The five of them made their way to the common room, Beast Boy taking Raven to her room as soon as they reached the floor. As he entered, Raven spoke up again.

"…Did I say you could come in here..?" she said, maintaining her sarcasm even with most of her body asleep.

"When do I ever ask, anyway?" the changeling said, giving her a fanged grin. She sighed before taking hold of her dresser and pointing.

"Changing. Go." She ordered, but Beast Boy remained stalwart, shaking his head.

"No can do."

Raven knit her brows. "Who do you think you are all of a sudden..?"

"Rae, I'm staying here to make sure you don't fall and bang your head, not so I can get a free peepshow. Besides, we've been dating for a year now, I think we can handle seeing each other undress."

Raven was too damn tired to argue with him. The faster she could just get into some sleep clothes and rest, the better. And… a year _is _a pretty long time.

"Stay there and be quiet." She warned, before turning away and sitting on her bed. She slipped her boots off with her good hand, neatly placing them by her bed, and peeled away her socks as well, revealing her hot, sore feet. Pausing to let the cool air wrap around them, she shakily stood back up, curling her toes against the fabric of her carpet. She removed her hood and began to undo her cloak, taking a moment to glance up at Beast Boy, who hadn't budged. Taking her cloak off of her slim shoulders, she hung it on her bedpost and went to her dresser.

It took extreme concentration to maintain her stance. The world swiveled about like someone was balancing it on the head of a pencil. And how was she going to put on her clothes with only one useable hand?

In this brief moment of distraction, she inadvertently leaned backwards due to her failing equilibrium and stumbled. Bracing herself for the impact on her rear, she instead felt two arms stop her from reaching the floor.

"Something tells me you need a little assistance." Beast Boy said, standing her back up.

"I told you not to move." Raven replied indignantly, turning to look at the undulating form of the changeling.

"Rae, I've seen tops that wobble less than you. Just let me help you get your pajamas on."

"_No_. I can dress myself" Raven insisted, only to stumble again, grabbing her bed post for support.

Beast Boy sighed patiently and took Raven's good hand. "You're mouth's writing checks your body can't cash. Come sit down, I gotcha."

Raven allowed him to lead her over to her bed, where she sat down, scorning the weakness of her body silently. Beast Boy went over to her dresser and looked in the already open drawer.

"I've seen less black clothes at a funeral." He teased, Raven giving no response other than a frown. She would have punched him if she could actually perceive where he was in space from this distance.

Beast Boy took out a black, soft T-Shirt with a flaming, winged skull on the front, and a pair of sweatpants; he always thought she looked amazing in this outfit, and selected it on purpose.

Raven had begun to work on taking her skin-tight black undergarment off, pulling down on the shoulders individually with her good hand. Things weren't looking good, this part of her uniform was difficult to take off with two hands, and she only succeeded in freeing her shoulders and neck from its entrapments.

Beast Boy saw her struggling and came to her side with the other clothes. Placing them down beside her, he knelt down in front of her.

"You need two hands." He said, reaching for the lips of fabric Raven had succeeded in removing, only to have his hands smacked away.

"Don't. Touch." She commanded. Beast Boy simply raised an eyebrow in response. Raven tried to give him a hardened look, but her impatience got the better of her, and she leaned back on her hands submissively. "Fine."

Beast Boy smiled wryly and took the lipped corners of the outfit. It took a considerable amount of effort, but he managed to slide them down Raven's torso without causing her too much discomfort. He couldn't help but sneak a quick glance at her chest, her bra was a rich purple color, and gave only the subtlest hint of the treasures that lay beneath it. Even though he felt it coming as soon as he did it, he flinched when Raven socked him on the top of his head.

"I'll get you for that."

"Totally worth it."

He succeeded in sliding the garment down her well-toned legs, another favorite of his. They were exquisite, almost like they were sculpted from the purest of marbles, and were just ample enough to be the perfect thickness.

After he had taken it off from around her ankles, he held it triumphantly in one hand and grinned.

"Didn't touch you once, did I?"

"You're still a pervert."

"What, I'm not allowed to admire how sexy my girlfriend is?"

"No, you're not, if you want to keep her."

Raven took her shirt and managed to slide it on. Now clad in only her underwear and shirt, she reached for her sweatpants, but stopped midway.

"Forget it." She flipped her hand and knocked the pants onto the ground, it was hot out anyway. Beast Boy had finished folding her uniform as best he could and placed it on top of her dresser.

"Hmm… no go on the pants, eh?" he mused, waggling his brows. "And here I thought I wasn't gonna get a peepshow."

"Gag." Raven declared flatly, pulling the bedspread towards her and crawling under. She flopped down on the pillow and sighed.

Beast Boy had left the room and switched the light off, but left the door open. The light in the hallway would have usually bothered her to no end, but at this rate, she didn't care. Closing her eyes, she felt her body relax almost instantly, and her thoughts began to drift and warp together, as they always did when one begins to fall asleep. She was on the cusp of slumber when she heard the changeling reenter the room, closing the door behind him. Keeping her eyes closed, she heard his approaching footsteps, and felt the sheets rustle as he climbed into the bed next to her. Rolling over, her arms found him, and she pulled him into a firm embrace. He replied in kind, his fingers affectionately stroking her cheek, and he felt her lips touch his for a brief moment before she curled into his chest.

"Thanks for letting me take care of you."

"Mmm-hmm." Raven replied sleepily.

"You were a real trouper tonight."

"Mmm-hmm."

"…Rae?"

"Mmm-hmm?"

"…Love you."

"Love you, too."

_There she was, just walkin' down the street, singin'_

_Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo_

_Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet, singin'_

_Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo_

The driver of the ambulance bounced along to the beat of the song on the radio, lip-synching with the lyrics and drumming rhythmically on the steering wheel. The paramedic in the passenger seat gave him a skeptical look.

"Enjoying yourself, Morgan?" he inquired.

"I'm telling you, Axel, music was at an all-time high in the 60's. Nobody in this day and age comes anywhere close to reaching the level of pure enjoyment that came from guys like Manfred Mann."

Axel blew a raspberry with his lips. "Says a guy born in the early 80's." he drawled.

"Age doesn't have anything to do with it, Axel. If I was born yesterday, I would tell you the exact same thing I'm telling you now."

Axel rolled his eyes and let his colleague enjoy his song. After a minute or so, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Damn, my arms ache. You ever seen such a big sumbitch like Frankenstein back there?" He jabbed his thumb towards the back of the ambulance where the body rested.

Morgan shook his head. "It's a shame, he wasted all that good muscle killing folks. For all we know, he could've been the next heavyweight champ if he didn't throw his life away."

"Did you hear what happened to that drifter they found? Meat cleaver buried in his skull down to the hilt, square across his face, _in one swipe! _The kid's head split in half like a damn apple when they took it out!"

"You sound impressed." Morgan said.

"What else can I be? I don't think anyone has ever pulled that off." Axel said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I'm just glad he's out of commission for good. Raven did this city a favor."

"Did she ever. What do you think would've happened if he got himself a shotgun? We'd be going in there with a mop and a pair of tweezers!"

Morgan began to respond, but a loud thud from the back of the ambulance cut him off.

"The hell was that?"

"Pull over."

The vehicle drifted to the side of the lonely road and grinded to a halt in the dirt. The two paramedics exited the vehicle and hurried to the back, each of them taking one of the doors and flinging them open.

The inside seemed completely unchanged, there was no sign of any activity. The body remained as stiff and worm-eaten as ever, still underneath the straps and blanket.

"Maybe we ran over something." Axel said, taking a few steps away from the vehicle and looking into the road for any unfortunate animal that may have been in their path. Morgan sighed and turned to his colleague.

"Forget it, Axel. Let's just get this guy to the morgue already."

Morgan failed to notice the straps become undone as the corpse sat up, the blanket falling off of his malformed face, his one eye staring at the back of Morgan's head with homicidal hunger.

"Axel, come on already!" Morgan yelled. He raised his eyebrow when he heard what sounded like metallic footsteps behind him, but had no time to turn around.

Seizing Morgan's head with a decrepit hand, Jason raised a syringe he had stolen from one of the cabinets and rammed it into the paramedic's neck, wedging the entire needle and a good portion of the tube into his flesh. Morgan screamed in pain, only to be shoved aside by Jason.

"Oh, _shit! _Morgan?!" Axel cried out, his blood turning to ice at the sight of the newly upright body of Jason. Jason wasted no time, and threw a scalpel with pinpoint accuracy at Axel, the small steel instrument plunging blade-first into his right eyeball, skewering it and burying itself in his cranium. Axel remained upright for a few more moments before face-planting onto the dirt.

Jason looked down at the frantically squirming Morgan, and leapt off of the back of the ambulance. He landed with both feet upon each of his arms, snapping them like twigs. He silenced Morgan's fresh screams of agony by grabbing his head and giving it a sharp crank. His head now backwards, Morgan blinked once or twice before ceasing to move.

Jason dropped the paramedic and briefly surveyed his surroundings. His eye fell upon his hockey mask, sitting in an evidence bag by the gurney he was strapped to. He retrieved it, wrenching it from the bag, causing the plastic to rip open, and he slipped it back on. He gave a huff of satisfaction before moving to exit the vehicle. But then he heard another voice.

Whirling about, he was ready to attack, but found no one around.

"This is a general announcement to all paramedics…" Jason approached the open door to the driver's seat and found that somebody was speaking from the radio.

"The mayor would like to thank all of you for your great job tonight, all five of the Titans have made it safely back to the Tower, and even Raven is in good condition. Good work tonight, team."

The gears began turning in Jason's head. Five…Titans? He felt a spark of anger when he realized that they must have been the strange group of kids who had bested him earlier. They had to be punished… but where was this Tower?

Jason lumbered around the ambulance, looking for anything that might aid him, and paused when he looked out over the bay. In the distance, there was a building that sat on a small island, and though he couldn't see it clearly, the lights surrounding it formed a perfectly shaped letter 'T.'

That seemed like a good place to start.

Jason looked down at his hands. He had no weapons, even his buck knife was missing.

The first order of business was to get some tools. The second, kill the five so-called 'Titans.' He began to march back towards town. The radio on the ambulance had begun playing another song.

_And he's Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown_

_The baddest man in the whole damned town, _

_Badder than ol' King Kong,_

_And meaner than a junkyard dog…_

***A/N* Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown was a #1 hit in the seventies, just a little trivia. Listen to it, it's a fun song. The other one was a sixties hit called Doo Wah Diddy, also a good one. Anyway, Jason isn't dead (of course) and he's got his ****eyes **** eye set on the Titans. The better prepare for the worst, and for God's sake, never say "I'll be right back!" See you next time. *A/N***


	12. Mama's Boy: Finale

***This is probably the longest single chapter I've ever posted. Through college work, procrastination, more college work, and a lack of creative flow, I've finally done it. I've created a monster, folks. This beast of a Chapter is finally finished, and I'm pleased with the results. Like most Friday the 13th movies, this one could have been a lot gorier, but is censored for your viewing pleasure. It's still violent and over-the-top, though, just as it should be. Enjoy!***

"Ninety-nine…"

Robin could practically taste the lactic acid building up in his body as he pushed the two hundred and fifty pound barbell up into the air. He let it down as gently as he could to avoid crushing his ribcage, the heavy metal threatening to force his straining arms down if he slacked his grip too much. Succeeding in returning it to its resting position on his chest, he paused. His face red and damp with sweat, he puffed out his cheeks and exhaled before constricting every muscle in his body to get the bar back into the air again. His teeth felt like they were going to crack as he clenched them together. He finally reached the peak of his lift, and brought the weight onto its rack above him with a crash. He dropped his arms, which flopped down beside him and dangled off of the bench.

"One hundred." he gasped triumphantly.

Taking a few moments to catch his breath, he sat up, the leather briefly clinging to his neck before peeling off. He had changed out of his uniform into a white, sleeveless undershirt and a pair of gym shorts. He was drenched in sweat, his shirt soaked from top to bottom, and his arms ached worse than they had in ages, but he felt great. That was the most he'd ever bench pressed with 250.

Taking off his workout gloves, he dropped them onto the bench and went to his shower. He paused to check on his biceps. They were going to be as thick as a gorilla's if he kept this up. Grinning at this thought, he smiled a little wider at the thought of Starfire admiring them.

He took a quick cold shower and wrapped a towel about his waist after drying off. Approaching his closet, he tossed the door open and grabbed his bathrobe off of the hook on the inside of the door. He was surprised when he saw a small piece of paper slip from one of the pockets and flutter to the ground.

He picked it up and read it. There was only one word scribbled across the front in large letters.

ROOF

It must have been a bit of paper he picked up off the ground and forgot to throw away. He stared at the scrap of paper for a few moments more before tucking it back into the bathrobe's pocket and pulling it on. After tying the sash, he paused.

ROOF. Go to the roof. It was a message.

Narrowing his eyes, he looked up at the ceiling, as if he could see the top of the Tower. Was there someone waiting for him up there? He immediately thought of the possibility of some sort of hostile intent, but what villain would be dumb enough to announce an ambush, so secretly, no less? Frowning, Robin took his bathrobe off and donned a pair of jeans, and tucked his utility belt through the loops. Better safe than sorry. Putting his bathrobe back on to hide the weapons, he found his sandals before exiting his room.

There was no one in the common room, he surmised they all went to bed. Or maybe they were hiding on the roof ready to ambush them. If they wanted to try and pull a fast one on him after the events of tonight, so be it; he would give them a thrashing to remember.

Taking the staircase to the rooftop access door, he pushed it open. The metal gave a small yelp as he stepped outdoors.

A milky expanse of fog hung over the bay, and the clouds above threatened more rain in the near future. It was an ethereally beautiful sight, and he would've taken a few minutes to enjoy the view if he wasn't focused on other things. Quietly walking a short distance in front of him, he panned in a circle. Everything seemed to be in order. Walking over to the door, he glanced down the alcoves between the edge of the roof and the entryway.

He honestly wouldn't have been surprised if his other teammates popped up from behind the three garbage cans with party horns and a cake. To his slight disappointment, there was no such thing, and he turned to leave.

Then he stopped.

_Three _garbage cans?

There were only two that he could think of, one for food and another for recyclables.

Rounding the corner briskly, he strode over to the three forms, and as he approached, he saw that one of the shadows was indeed an imposter.

"Hands where I can see 'em." Robin ordered, taking out his grapple-gun.

"Keep your damn voice down!" came the angry, yet hushed retort.

The human figure crouched between the trash turned to look at Robin. He was an obese young man with a small face and a mane of flaming red hair.

"Control Freak?!" Robin exclaimed.

"Shut _up _already! Yell any louder, why don't you?"

Control Freak stood up and dusted himself off. "Took you long enough." He snapped, not raising his voice above a whisper.

"How did you even get in here?" Robin demanded, now aiming his gun at the villain.

"Your security system is archaic! Who uses Voice ID nowadays, honestly? Anyone with a smart phone could break in!"

Control Freak flinched when Robin raised his gun a little higher, and raised his hands defensively.

"Okay, okay, look. I'm not here to cause trouble, alright? I came to help you."

Robin snorted. "That's a good one." He replied with heavy sarcasm.

"Oh, you think it's funny?" Control Freak spat. "Well, I'm gonna be slapping my knee when the coroner brings your entire team into the morgue in a bucket!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Jason. You didn't kill Jason!"

"So you _did_ have something to do with that. I hope you know that you're going-"

Control Freak grabbed Robin's collar.

"_I didn't do it on purpose!_" he shouted, both frantic and angry. He released Robin when he raised the butt of his gun threateningly.

"What do you know about that man? Where did he come from?" Robin demanded, keeping his voice quiet.

Control Freak nervously glanced around.

"You have to promise me-"

"I'm not promising you anything. You're lucky I haven't throttled you for breaking into our headquarters. Start talking."

Control Freak balled up a fist and shook it at Robin, but he couldn't get any words out, since his nose was inches away from his grappling gun. His lips squirmed about on his face for a few moments before he started talking.

"Look, I…I was trying to build myself another Remote. Since you guys still have my other one," he added venomously. "I needed to start from scratch. So I gutted an old TV Remote and made all the changes, but I needed a way to up the voltage…"

"Get to the point."

"I _am_! If you actually knew anything about electro-chemistry, you'd let me finish, _Dick._"

Robin glared darkly at the nerdy supervillain, but made a quick motion for him to continue.

"Anyway, blahdy blahdy blah, charges, molecules, 5th grade science, I get it ready to roll. But the crystal, its fuel source, apparently had too weak of a composition, and it ruptured. The electro-mites go flying onto a standee I keep in my roo- lair, and guess who that standee is?"

"Jason…"

"Good listening! You get a Gold Star!" Control Freak taunted before putting a beleaguered, sweaty palm to his chubby face.

"Why would you come here, then?" Robin inquired.

"Because you five bozos still have my prototype Remote! If I could get my mitts on it again, Jason would turn back into a piece of cardboard! I tried contacting you, but you were already gone by the time I got this idea! I figured I would sneak in and take it for myself while you were out, but you're actually smart enough to keep your archives locked with modern technology, so I got stuck."

Control Freak took out a cell phone. "I got news about the emo chick 'killing' Jason a few minutes before the five of you show up. So I slip a note into that preppy jacket of yours and hide up here."

Robin stopped to ponder the truth in Control Freak's words. That all seemed to fit together, but one thing irked him.

"First of all, the 'emo chick' is named Raven, and she nearly lost her hand incapacitating Jason, so watch your fat mouth. Second of all, what makes you so certain that Jason isn't dead?"

Control Freak rolled his eyes and stuck his arms out.

"This is JASON FREAKING VOORHEES we're talking about! This is a guy who survived an axe to the head, a split open skull, a boat propeller to the face, fire, explosions, gunshots, cryogenic suspension, the bowels of Hell itself, toxic waste, drowning half a million times, even being vaporized in the atmosphere! I think a dumpster wouldn't have any more stopping power, do you?"

Robin furrowed his brow. Although he hated admitting it, if this opinion was coming from the crown prince of coach potatoes, than it was probably fact.

"So he's still out there? And you're certain that your Remote will take him out for good?"

"I'm not only certain about that, I'm also certain that you're next on his hit list." Control Freak pointed a stubby finger at Robin for emphasis. "Jason isn't gonna stop until you and your stooges are roasting on a spit. So, pretty please, with a cherry on top, gimme my damn Remote."

Robin turned the defense over in his mind a few times. Sure, Control Freak was probably the only villain to have access to a life-sized standee of Jason, but there was always the chance that he was making all of this up. He wouldn't trust him on the streets with the Remote back in his possession, Jason or not.

"We don't have time to bat this around, Robin! He could be here any minute now!"

Control Freak gave a choked squeal as a pair of grimy hands seized his neck.

"Oh, CHRIST!" Robin exclaimed.

Jason stood nearly two heads taller than Control Freak, and had somehow made his way behind the trash cans without being noticed. Robin felt his stomach drop when he thought of how he could have managed this, and he contemplated running to go check on his teammates to see if they were alright. But he aimed his grapple gun at the murderous cadaver as he hoisted Control Freak off of his feet, the geek's small legs pedaling in the air.

Robin fired, and the blade of the hook hit dead center in Jason's right eye socket. Dropping Control Freak with an alarmed grunt, he stumbled backwards and seized it with one hand. Control Freak scrambled away from Jason over to Robin, who was now rifling through his pocket for his Communicator.

Jason tore the blade out of his eye socket, Robin having hit the one containing the useless eyeball. Greenish-brown slime trickled down his mask from the puncture, and he threw the blade on the ground.

"Son of a…" Robin felt his stomach drop once more when he realized that he had left the Communicator on his bedside table. Quickly reeling in the line of the grapple gun, he took out a flash flare and threw it at Jason. The ensuing burst blinded him, the serial killer holding his arms out dizzily. Robin dashed forward and nailed Jason in the chest with a flying jump kick. It felt like kicking a wet sack of bricks, but the momentum was enough to knock the masked man backwards, crashing into the garbage cans and falling onto his back. Robin ran for the door and opened it, Control Freak waddling after him as fast as he could.

"Get inside, I'll wake the othe-"

Robin couldn't complete his order before Jason reappeared behind him. Catching the hero off guard, he successfully grabbed his head with both hands. One hand flattening his gelled hair, the other clamping his jaw shut, Jason began to squeeze. The pressure was inhumanly powerful, and Robin knew that if he didn't get his head free soon, it would squash like a grapefruit. Blood trickling from the places Jason pressed down on the hardest, Robin fumbled for anything from his tool belt as he thrashed around, using his other hand to uselessly pound on Jason's unflinching body.

Jason slacked his grip when he felt an object strike him on the side of the head. Control Freak had tossed his otherwise useless Remote at the murderer. Enemy or not, he wasn't about to let him die. Jason diverted his attention to the red-head, throwing the squirming Robin onto the concrete below and marching towards him. Control Freak glanced around, realizing he had no other way to defend himself, and ducked into the still open door, slamming it behind him. Jason attempted to pull it open, but it was already locked, and Robin stood back up and plunged a bird-a-rang into Jason's shoulder, piggy-backing on the killer's massive frame.

Control Freak pressed an ear to the door to listen in on the mayhem outside, there were a few grunts and heavy footsteps, with the occasional sound of metal striking metal. The noise was drowned out when he felt a low humming noise next to his ear, accompanied by intense heat. Turning, he found himself staring down the bulky frame of Cyborg's blaster, the end pointed directly at his nose.

"We'd appreciate it if you knocked first." The mechanical teen said, but he was caught off guard by his adversary's frantic expression.

"We need to get out of here, now!" he urged.

"Yeah, you do." Cyborg said, gesturing with his blaster. "Get it in gear."

Control Freak gave an embarrassingly high-pitched squawk of terror when the door behind him was pierced by a machete, the sixteen-inch blade slicing through the metal like a knife through warm butter. The blade was mere inches from Control Freak's shoulder.

Cyborg took a step back in shock, Control Freak managing to shove past him and hurrying out of sight. The machete was retracted back through the door with a stomach-curling screech of grinding steel, followed by a grunt of effort and a heavy thud against the door. Cyborg, forgetting about Control Freak, undid the lock and forced the stubborn door open.

"_Robin?!_" he cried in disbelief. Robin ducked a swipe from Jason's machete, unable to look at his friend due to his concentration.

"Get the others up here! I can keep him busy!"

Cyborg complied and slammed the door shut, shouting indistinctly as he tromped down the stairs.

Robin sidestepped another swipe and punched Jason in the face, to no avail. Thunder boomed overhead and heavy droplets of rain began falling, their pace accelerating into a downpour. Robin struck Jason in the side with a roundhouse kick, the deranged man barely flinching and grabbing Robin's ankle before he could pull it away. Jason whipped his body around at an alarming speed, twirled Robin around like he was a shot-put, and released the teen. Robin was seen flying through the air before disappearing over the side of the roof.

Jason stopped and took a few deep breaths, the rain relentlessly pounding on his already waterlogged flesh.

One down, four to go.

He grasped his machete a little tighter as he turned to look at the only way into the Tower's interior, the door. Tilting his head, he thought. One entrance meant they would all know where he would come in. This was unacceptable. He then looked over to the ledge. This building was almost all windows. And if he could climb up the scaffolding, he could certainly climb back down. Huffing, he reached into his pants and pulled out a long length of chain.

Five minutes later…

Starfire threw the rooftop door open with all the force she could muster, eyes and hands aglow. She found no one outside to greet her other than the torrential downpour.

"ROBIN?!" she cried out. She hovered into the air and looked around the rooftop for any sign of life. Cyborg was the next to exit the building, activating his infrared scanner. There were a set of footsteps snaking all around the roof, occasionally bursting into small clouds of what he assumed were fights with Jason. But they never lead anywhere, not towards the door, or the alley, they just seemed to stop at one of the 'hot-spots.' Jason appeared to have no footprints, since he had no body temperature, and he seemed to have vanished, too.

"ROBIN!" Starfire cried again, this time her voice cracking with desperation. Panic filled her veins like burning poison as she grabbed her soaking wet hair.

"Star, get inside!" Cyborg bellowed, but Starfire either didn't hear him or simply didn't care, as she continued searching, now searching the open air around the roof.

"STAR, COME ON!" Cyborg roared, refusing to have his voice be drowned out by the rain this time.

Starfire rocketed over to Cyborg and grabbed his shoulders.

"What happened to Robin?!" she demanded, a pleading look in her eye.

"I…" Cyborg froze when he realized that he didn't have an answer. "I…I don't know." He concluded weakly. Starfire put both hands over her mouth in horror.

"No… it…can't be." She muttered. Cyborg grabbed her and pulled her indoors, hurrying down the steps into the common room. Beast Boy was attempting to shake Raven, seated on the couch, out of her drug-induced stupor. Beast Boy reluctantly left her side when he saw his wet teammates enter the room, being sure that she was in a comfortable position before joining them.

"What's the score?" Beast Boy inquired.

"Not good. Robin and Jason are missing." Cyborg said grimly.

"Missing? What do you mean? Didn't you say they were on the roof? There's no way down but the one door…"

"I _know _what I said, B! And they weren't there!" Cyborg snapped.

"Then where are they?!" Beast Boy yelled back.

"I. Don't. Know!"

Raven's half lidded eyes opened up a little wider at the sound of the shouting match, and she sat up to look at the arguing teammates. She would have told them to calm down under normal conditions, but she was running on fumes at this point, using her precious few drops of energy to stay awake. Besides, she couldn't tell all ten of them to be quiet.

…There were ten of them, right?

"The first thing we need to do is find Control Freak."

"Control Freak? You said we were dealing with Jason!"

"It's both of them! They're both here, and I've got reason to believe that they're in on this together."

"We need to find Robin first, worry about the Control Freak and the man behind the mask later!"

"Star, where are we gonna look? If we don't catch Control Freak in time, Jason'll show up and make mincemeat out of us."

"You said Jason was missing!"

"He _is_. And how do we know he didn't sneak inside while I was getting y'all out of bed?"

"We need to find Robin!"

"_Stop that, Star_!"

Starfire closed her mouth and bit her lip as a lump began swelling in her throat. She stared down at the floor, her knees nearly buckling from the weight of her desperation.

Cyborg immediately felt remorse for shouting at her, but he would have to consolidate her later.

"Look guys, I know you're worried about Robin, and I am too. But right now, we need to _focus._ Our lives are in danger… probably in more danger than they've been in years. We need to stick together and find Control Freak…"

"…What makes you think Control Freak can stop Jason..?" Raven interjected, turned backwards on the couch, arms resting on the top of the cushions.

Cyborg let out a humorless, grim chuckle. "Nothing. It's just a hunch, but it's our best bet right now. We have to put as much distance between us and Jason as possible."

"Why don't we just track Jason down and nail him together?" Beast Boy suggested.

"We don't know where he is right now. He may be big, but he's quick, and my sensors don't pick him up. He could catch us off guard before we'd get a chance to fight back. And besides, what if he found his way into the garage and got his hands on all my power tools? The guy would turn us into confetti if he had a chainsaw."

"Wait, wait, wait, why do we have a chainsaw?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Rescue. Robin bought it. Anyway-"

"No, hold the damn phone! Why do we need a chainsaw, in case a fallen tree decides to rob a bank?! Or just in case something crazy like this happens and we need the psycho to have-"

"Shut _up_, Beast Boy!"

Raven had lost interest in the argument at this point. She stared vacantly out the window, the rain coming down hard. She didn't bother shaking herself as sleep crept back into her body. In her half-conscious state, her eyes began seeing ridiculous things; it looked like there was a big person swinging around in the rain on a trapeze. She would have found this funny if this person wasn't headed straight for the window.

*SMASH*

The window by the television exploded into shards. Breaking the glass with his shoulder, Jason swung into the room upon a chain and landed feet-first in the common room.

Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire all let out screams of alarm as Jason made his unexpected entrance. Raven gave a weak, shocked gasp, sitting up a little straighter.

Jason recognized the one on the couch immediately. The sight of her in nothing but a T-Shirt and underpants enraged him further, reminding him of the capricious counselors who let him drown as a boy. Pulling a screwdriver from his belt, he marched towards Raven, glass crunching under his boots. Raven began backpedaling, her drugged mind just now realizing she was in danger.

"_Don't you dare!" _

A green bull thundered towards Jason. The momentum from the ensuing impact sent him out of the hole he created, and he grabbed the dangling chain, swinging out into the rain and rocketing back with just as much force. Beast Boy changed back into human form just in time to have a boot twice the size of his face plant itself there. He was thrown onto the ground, landing on his back and clutching at his face, his nose now broken and blood dribbling from his nostrils.

Raven felt adrenaline rush to her brain as she moved to stand up, the shock of her boyfriend in pain enough to drag her from fatigue.

Jason let go of the chain and was immediately pounded with a volley of starbolts and shots from Cyborg's cannon. Refusing to let the impact push him outside again, Jason pushed back against the force and threw the screwdriver. Starfire gave a yelp of pain and fell to her knees, the flat-head burying itself two inches into her shoulder.

Cyborg had his chance to help the Tamaranian when a green gorilla leapt off of the ground onto Jason. The ape pounded on Jason's head, whooping furiously. The undeterred killer withdrew his machete from a sheath strapped to his back and swung it mightily, the blade embedding itself in Beast Boy's back.

Moaning, the gorilla turned back into a teenager and rolled off of Jason, grasping at the giant knife stuck in his back.

"That was a mistake."

Jason gave an astonished "Mrgh?!" as he was hoisted into the air by an unseen force. The girl on the couch now stood upon it, arm outstretched and eyes aglow with white fury.

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Jason was flung into the table between the couch and television with such force that it split in two on impact. The killer crashed into the floor beneath it, the ceramic cracking, the side of Jason's skull leaving a circular dent where it cracked against it. Raven then levitated the plasma screen television into the air and brought that down onto Jason's head. The screen shattered and white hot sparks danced around the maniac's flailing body as the sound of electricity rattled throughout the room.

Raven levitated over to Beast Boy and scooped him into her arms. She turned to the others.

"Go. I've only stalled him."

"Raven, DON'T!" Starfire protested, holding her hand out.

The sorceress turned to the wall nearest her and slipped through it.

Cyborg took Starfire's hand and briskly escorted her into the dormitory hall, despite her demands that they follow Raven. Sending the emergency shutter down to block the entrance, Cyborg turned to his friend.

"They need our assistance!" Starfire implored, trying to get the metal man to change his mind.

"Raven'll take care of him, Star, we need to find Control Freak. Let's go to The Archives." Starfire refused to budge.

"I cannot allow the two of them to be alone in their condition with such an evil man!" She then flicked the shutter switch up.

"Starfire, you can't!"

"I must!"

She turned to the doorway as the shutters raveled back into the ceiling. She was greeted with a six foot five behemoth in a now burnt hockey mask standing inches from the door.

Starfire shrieked and barely avoided Jason's hatchet as he took a swing at her head, missing and slamming the blade into the doorframe with a loud clang. Starfire, crouched on the ground, managed to flick the emergency switch with her foot and leap out of the way. The shutters forced the hatchet out of Jason's hand and pinned it to the floor, once again separating him from the two teens.

"Leg it!" Cyborg commanded, and he sprinted down the hall, Starfire gliding swiftly behind him.

Jason pulled his hatchet out from under the shutters with a few good tugs, and began chopping away at the steel. They could run, but they couldn't hide. He had fought 'supernaturals' like them before, their powers didn't make them special. They bled just like everyone else.

After making a hole large enough for his forearm, he stuck his hand through the shutter and felt around for some kind of button. He eventually found the switch and opened the shutter. As much as he would have liked to find the pale girl with the diamond on her forehead, he hadn't seen where she had gone.

He would save her and the oddly colored boy for last.

Down the corridor, Starfire heard the low rumbling that signaled the shutter opening and felt a shiver run up her spine.

"I knew that wouldn't hold him off for long." Cyborg muttered as he punched in the correct entry code. The two nervous heroes stood outside of the entrance to the Archives.

"I do not understand why we are entering a room without exits." Starfire fretted, repeatedly glancing over her shoulder. "Shouldn't we try to escape to the outdoors?"

"The idea is to lure. This is the most armored room in the Tower, if we can get Jason to take the bait and get himself locked inside here, he should be stuck. Then we can find the others, get ourselves some heavy duty weapons, and turn that rotten freak into paste before he can twitch another eyebrow."

"What about the items inside?"

"He can't get through any of the display cases, even if he did, he wouldn't know how to use them."

"How can you be so certain?"

Cyborg looked his friend in the eye.

"I'm not. But right now, it's this or face him head on. And I ain't letting him hurt us anymore.

He finished tapping in the lengthy combination to The Archives, a complex combination of birthdays and phone-numbers, and the door slid open.

"What is this 'bait' that Jay's son will take?" Starfire queried.

"Us."

Cyborg entered the dimly lit archives. Shelves of complicated merchandise taken from previous villains sat sealed tight in various lockboxes along the wall. More notable examples sat behind doubled-layered Plexi-Glass thicker than Cyborg's fist.

"We should be out of sight, but close enough to the entrance to make a run for it. We should also hide in different spots so he can't get the jump on both of us at once."

Starfire nodded, but failed to hide her trembling lower lip. She grabbed Cyborg's torso and gave him a desperate, back-breaking hug.

"I-I wish you good luck…" she said tearfully.

Cyborg gave her shoulder a re-assuring squeeze.

"Same to you. Wait for my signal, alright? We can do this."

The two friends let go of each other, which took considerable effort, and separated to opposite sides of the room, ducking out of view and not saying another word.

The seconds crawled by at an agonizingly slow pace. Neither of the heroes dared to budge an inch; every sound seemed to be deafening, even the act of shifting one's weight seemed tumultuous enough to rouse suspicion. The sound of one's breathing suddenly became the rousing din of wind tearing through the air.

Seconds turned to minutes. The anticipation was eating away at the heroes ravenously. They silently prayed that their target hadn't lost interest in them and gone to look for the others.

They still had to stop themselves from flinching when they heard the wet footsteps outside.

Jason peered into the darkened room he had found open. A bunch of strange-looking items sat inside glass cases. He thought hard for a few moments.

He had seen diversions like this set for him before. Usually, the one he was chasing would lock themselves behind a door; leaving one open was too foolish of a decision to have been done on purpose.

Cyborg bit his lip. Jason stood in the doorway, his fingers still wrapped tightly around his double-sided hatchet, now with several nicks in it from carving a hole into the emergency shutter.

(Come on. Come on, you meat-headed bastard. Just a few steps, that's all we want. Just a few steps.)

Jason carefully surveyed the area.

(Just. A few. Steps.)

The serial killer's head snapped towards the center of the room as if it was attached to a spring. Cyborg felt his stomach drop when he heard a soft clatter from behind the nearby shelf of lockboxes. Starfire, you…

Wait…

Starfire was hidden across the way, not behind the shelves.

He had no choice but to duck a little lower when Jason came in to investigate. His squelching footsteps leaving slimy footprints on the polished floor, and he was once again greeted with the rank odor that hung over the zombie.

There was an explosion of noise as a plump figure leapt into view, a small device in one hand and a battle cry in his throat. Jason raised his hatchet instantaneously, but the figure clicked a button on the device before he could bring it down.

Jason froze in his attack stance. There came a loud hissing noise, like static on a television screen, followed by a few electrical pops and cracks as Jason twitched a few times. His very figure seemed to become flattened, as though he was suddenly being pressed into nothing more than a two-dimensional drawing, still trapped in his offensive position. The crackling finally stopped, and the being that was once a maniacal killer was now a simple cardboard standee.

"Good as new." Control Freak mused, prodding the flimsy facsimile.

His satisfaction didn't last long, since Cyborg appeared behind him with his blaster nearly touching the back of his head.

"No need for guns, Robocop. We can all rest easy, now."

Starfire emerged from hiding, eyes alight with fury, knocking the Jason standee over and grabbing Control Freak's collar.

"_What has your minion done with Robin?!_" she roared.

"He's not my minion." Control Freak replied with a decent level of composure. "And I honestly expected more gratitude from you all, since I _did_ just save your-"

Power radiated off of Starfire in waves of heat as the energy from her eyes brightened.

"Listen, geek," Cyborg growled. "we've been through hell and high water to get your goon quiet. It's one o' clock at night, Raven got her hand torn open, Beast Boy currently has a 16-inch piece of metal in his back, and I'm just about out of patience. Now do you want to just answer our questions, or do I have to get ugly?"

Control Freak felt his ego deflate at these words. Judging from their expressions, they meant business. He could have mouthed off some more, but it really wasn't worth it at this point.

"Okay, look, could you at least put me down?"

Cyborg nodded to Starfire, holding Control Freak several feet off the ground. "Let him go, Star."

Starfire did exactly that and let him fall to the floor, exclaiming in shock as he hit his tailbone on the ground. After massaging his rear, Control Freak stood up.

"I was trying to make myself another remote, but there was a malfunction. The crystal I needed to give it juice shattered, and it hit the standee." He explained, pointing to the frozen cardboard psychopath.

"I tried to get him under control, but he sent me through a second-story window. When I woke up, he was gone. I broke in here to get my remote and turn him back to normal."

Control Freak ended his explanation, but found his head still in the blast radius of Cyborg's weapon.

"How do we know you're not just pulling all of this out of your ass?"

Control Freak groaned with impatience. "Would I honestly break into the headquarters of five super-humans if lives _weren't_ in danger?!"

Control Freak rounded on Cyborg. "And for the record, I just saved all of you, too! So I recommend you take that oversized glow stick you call a gun out of my face before I have a change of-"

Control Freak's jaw was wedged to the side when a fist struck him in the cheek, knocking him sideways into the shelves. Cyborg whirled around to look at the assailant, blaster at the ready.

"He had that coming."

A teen with jet black hair had entered the room during the argument. Soaking wet, he was dressed in a maroon bathrobe. He wore no shoes, no mask, and an exhausted smile.

"ROBIN!"

Starfire scooped her boyfriend up off of the ground and joyfully spun him in circles, trapping him in her infamously tight hug.

"Hi, Star." Robin said, too tired to fight back.

The water gates burst open, and tears streamed down Starfire's cheeks. She began sobbing hysterically, the stress, fear, and jubilation of the evening spilling out of her in liquid form.

"I-I thought you had…had… oh, Robin!" she spluttered. She then planted a sloppy kiss on Robin's cheek, which the teen leaned away from slightly, less from embarrassment and more from exasperation. Turning on a dime, she suddenly gained a fiery glare.

"Where did you _go?!" _she demanded, still keeping Robin in a hold that rivaled a boa constrictor.

"Jason got the better of me and threw me over the side of the roof. He failed to realize that I still had my grappling hook. I climbed up until I could reach the fire escape."

Starfire was satisfied with this explanation, and resumed weeping into Robin's shoulder.

Cyborg was left staring up at the two of them with equal parts relief and awkwardness. He kept a careful eye on both villains in the room, but Control Freak was now cradling his jaw and wounded pride on the ground, and Jason… was still a standee.

Starfire finally released Robin, and the leader went to examine Jason.

"He's a lot less threatening when he's half an inch thick." He then looked down at Jason's owner.

"I'm still not sure what to charge you for. Multiple murders, manslaughter, or aiding and abetting…"

Control Freak grabbed Robin's ankles.

"Come on, man, have a heart! It was all an accident! I-I didn't mean to do any of it! You know I wouldn't ever-"

Robin shooed him off of his feet. "Come on, get up. We'll talk about the charges later." He looked about himself. "It looks like we're two short."

"Friends Raven and Beast Boy disappeared with each other. Beast Boy was struck with a large knife." Starfire fretted.

"Struck? Is he..?"

"It didn't look fatal. Raven can probably keep him from bleeding out, but he needs a doctor ASAP." Cyborg concluded.

Robin nodded. "Let's get a move on, then. You're coming too."

Control Freak got to his feet with his head hung. The three heroes and one villain exited the room, leaving the Jason standee behind.

Cyborg heaved a sigh of disgust when they reentered the common room.

"Raven's buying us another TV." He declared, looking at the ruined remains of his beloved console. The rain had leaked a few inches into the room from the smashed window, the rain persisting.

"Like I said, we'll talk about it later. We owe her a lot already for dropping the dumpster on Jason's head and taking my staff to her hand." Robin then put his thumb and index finger on his chin. "Come to think of it, I need a new staff too, don't I?"

"And a new window." Starfire added.

"And new emergency shutters."

The three heroes exchanged looks and then turned to look at Control Freak.

"What are you looking at?"

Their leering smiles were erased when Robin felt an object fly past his left ear. Hearing it hit the wall, he turned to look.

A hatchet was stuck in the wall. All four of them turned slowly.

Jason stood a few feet behind them, fully dimensional and huffing like a steer ready to charge.

"Control Freak..?" Cyborg murmured, frozen in place. "What happened?"

"I…I…" the nerd spluttered. He then dove his hand into his jacket pocket to get his remote, but Jason wouldn't allow that again. He withdrew a box-cutter from his tool belt and swiped Control Freak's wrist with the blade. Yelping in pain and surprise, the remote clattered to the floor as Control Freak stumbled backwards, clutching his now bleeding wound. Jason brought a foot down on the remote, crushing it in one go, and kicked what remained of it to the side.

"You've gotta be FREAKING KIDDING!" Robin yelled in utter panic. Jason approached the four of them as they all fumbled for their weapons. Raising his knife, Jason moved to slash their throats one by one.

*DING*

The elevator chime rang throughout the room, stopping Jason in his tracks to look up at the steel doors. They opened, and an unbelievable sight greeted him.

"Get out of the way."

Raven, still clad in nothing put a shirt and underwear, stood in the center of the elevator. In her hands, she clutched a bright red tool Robin had bought, but never used. The chainsaw roared to life as Raven dashed across the room, the buzzing saw raised over her head. Using her abilities, she leapt high into the air, up and over her teammates and directly in front of Jason. The confused murderer donned his battle stance to no avail. Raven gave a tremendous grunt of effort and buried the whirling saw directly into Jason's neck. The killer's entire body convulsed as he feebly lifted his hands towards the sawblade. Raven, teeth bared with four large, glowing eyes, jerked the blade with all her might, bellowing one word.

"DIE!"

The saw tore through what was left of Jason's neck, cleaving it entirely free from his body. Landing on the floor with a thud, his head rolled away a few feet, dribbling slime on the ground as it traveled. His body tumbled to the floor with a massive crash, and ceased all movement.

The chainsaw sputtered to a halt, and Raven dropped it listlessly onto the ground. She turned to her aghast peers with the same indifferent expression she always had.

"He's downstairs. I've called the police." Raven said, pointing downward for emphasis. She then tottered to the left.

"Going to bed now."

She fell onto the floor in complete and utter exhaustion, the adrenaline finally wearing off, and the Tramadol in her bloodstream ushering her into some well-deserved rest.

***It's weird how no one's ever thought of decapitating Jason before. Anyway, I'm putting this sucker to bed, and I'm going to start on the next story, Welcome to Nowhere, requested by sumersparkl and her little sister, soon. Need to rest my fingers first...***


	13. A Break

***A/N* We're back, sorry for the delay. Got College work and plenty of other stuff to work on, so I've been a busy man. But, here we go, a little preview to the next story, Welcome to Nowhere, a comedy requested by sumersprkl (and her younger sister.) Enjoy! *A/N***

"How come no one's ever thought about chopping Jason's head off, anyway? It worked on his mom, didn't it?" Beast Boy argued.

Raven gave him no response and handed him another drink, in a much taller glass this time around and about the same color as the last one, resembling cola. She sat down with an identical beverage of her own, setting it down on the table beside her and reclining in her armchair.

"So, what's this? A Screaming Orgasm?" Beast Boy inquired, giving his signature devilish grin and a quake of his brow.

Raven rolled her eyes. "No, something far less juvenile. It's called a Long Island Iced Tea."

Beast Boy looked down at the concoction in his hand and tentatively took a sip. It did taste eerily similar to iced tea. He took another, larger sip.

"Don't drink it too fast." Raven warned, but Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a challenge?" he replied.

"No, I just want you to exercise a little sobriety. There's more alcohol in that than you think, so please, act responsibly. I don't want hear you bawl about some terrible thing that happened to a childhood pet or something ridiculous like that."

Beast Boy pursed his lips. "I don't cry that easily."

"Oh, really? Do you remember that evening when we went to Kansas?"

Beast Boy pointed a finger in playful defense. "Oy, that caught me off guard, and don't try to deny anything."

Raven crossed her legs. "Still, I don't think I've ever seen a grown man blubber like you did…" she goaded.

"And who went outside and spun around like they were in The Sound of Music? That entire trip nearly took you out."

"True. In retrospect, it's a pleasant memory, though."

"Oh sure, you say that now, I thought I'd never hear the end of it when we got there."

***A/N* I've realized that I have an affinity for making characters cry. First Raven, now her boyfriend. I suppose the unbridled emotional release has always been fascinating to me. Oh well. See you soon. *A/N***


	14. Welcome to Nowhere: Part 1

***A/N* I return bearing fluff! I apologize for my hiatus, I've had college homework and plenty of other hurdles to jump over, but I'm quite pleased with what I've put out. This story was requested by sumersparkl, and I hope it's to her liking so far. This is less action and more dialogue based this time around, with some ideas taken from an RP I'm currently involved in with CleoArrow, who is a spectacular Raven. Enjoy! *A/N* **

Raven was stirred from her nap by a soft digital chime. She removed her sleeping mask and squinted around the bright cabin. Starfire managed to stay asleep across the aisle, a magazine in her lap, and Robin removed his ear-buds to listen to the message two aisles away.

"Good afternoon, folks, this is your Captain speaking. We're preparing to descend into Topeka. If you would please make sure your seat belts are fastened and all food trays are in their upright position, we'll be landing in about fifteen minutes. Thank you."

Raven sighed and rubbed her eyes. Her few hours of solace were now up.

She had been dreading this outing since she had agreed to do it. Not only was she not a huge fan of traveling, but what she was traveling to put her off even more.

An extremely rich private high school in Topeka, Kansas had requested that The Titans come and speak to the student body. Although at first the Titans were initially hesitant about abandoning their duties in Jump City, the school offered them a hefty fee that paid for everything; both of the First Class airplane flights to and from New York, their housing, transportation, and even some spending money left over for whatever they wanted. Everyone but Raven was on board after that.

It wasn't as though Raven disliked other kids her age, but getting up in front of them and giving a speech sounded just a little bit more tolerable than eating an electrical socket. She was not only shy, she was a notoriously bad speaker, stumbling over her words and coming off as dismissive or rude when she didn't mean to. Her four friends were quite good with publicity, so she stuck out like a sore thumb.

She felt her ears begin to pop as the airplane descended. Even though she knew it was petty, she was also quite cautious of the region where this whole brouhaha was supposed to take place. There was pretty much nothing in the Midwest other than farms and wide open spaces, and it had given birth to certain groups that targeted Raven as the literal Antichrist. Part demon or not, she had feelings, and that really stung the first time she heard it. Even though she had told the others differently, she was still considering physical punishment for such insults.

Starfire had finally woken up and looked about herself.

"We are descending?" she inquired to Raven.

"Unfortunately." Raven replied tartly.

The plane touched down a few minutes later, and the Captain spoke up again.

"Please make sure your seats are in their full upright positions, and please do not unfasten your seatbelts or move about the cabin until the plane has come to a complete stop. The time is 3:34 PM, and the temperature is 91 Degrees. We thank you for flying Air-Avi, and wish you all a pleasant rest of the day."

Raven picked up her novel off of the floor and dog-eared her page. She felt a tap on the shoulder, and turned to find Beast Boy peeking over the back of her seat.

"You ready to roll?" he inquired cheerfully.

"Maybe to roll over and play dead."

This earned a laugh from Beast Boy. He was in especially good spirits, since he loved going on vacation and was the first to express positive feelings to this whole event.

"Come on, Rae. This'll be fun!"

Raven didn't give him a reply, since she knew it would be something snippy. The plane finally came to a stop and she stood, opening the overhead compartment and getting her bag. Slinging the strap over her shoulder, she saw that she would have to wait a while to exit the plane, there were a few people preparing their things in the aisle. She thought about teleporting straight into the gate, but her instincts told her that there would be cameras and reporters waiting to greet her, and she wasn't about to face that alone.

Beast Boy wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"Just think, Mama, soon we'll be in a ritzy lodge without a care in the world."

"Call me that one more time, and you'll be crawling to the terminal." She warned.

"Tou-chy." Beast Boy goaded, but he relented, letting her go and choosing to talk to Cyborg instead. Raven knew that being this bitter wasn't going to help matters. Honestly, she was just in a bad mood, and didn't feel like talking to anyone.

The traffic in the aisle soon cleared up, and Raven joined with her teammates as they exited the plane. Her instincts had been entirely correct, as a slew of paparazzi were waiting to greet them.

They had no time to answer questions, and Raven refused to give the followers any answers, even refusing them a dismissive "No comment."

They eventually found their chaperone holding up a sign that read 'TITANS,' and he escorted them out into the parking lot.

Raven took a deep breath when she exited the airport. She was always intrigued by the subtle differences in separate places. Tiny changes in scent and sound always helped her characterize where she was.

"What's Kansas smell like?" Beast Boy inquired, still full of pep.

Raven turned to him and rubbed her nose.

"Dust. And ignorance."

"That's it? I smell farms, and cooking food, and plants-"

"Well, I don't possess the hyper-senses you have, do I?" she interjected.

Beast Boy frowned and put a hand on his hip.

"Listen, Debbie Downer. Complaining about The Midwest isn't going to make it go away. We're here, we're gonna be here for a few days, and _I'm _gonna try and make the best of it. If you want to pout about the whole time, you'll make yourself miserable."

Raven let out a silent sigh. He was right, there was no point in trying to stop something that's already in progress. And she certainly wasn't going to get anywhere being catty to her closest teammate.

"To tell you the truth… I'm really nervous about the whole speech thing." She confessed.

Beast Boy turned to her.

"That's what all of this is about?"

"Partially." She said.

Beast Boy put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not like this is a job interview, Rae. These kids aren't here to judge you. Don't be anyone except yourself, 'cause that's the girl they want to see."

Raven managed a tiny smile as her cheeks colored.

"You're a walking cliché, you know that?" she replied.

"Baby, I'm _the _walking cliché." The changeling declared, pointing a thumb at himself.

Cyborg put a hand over his eyes to block out the sun.

"Looks like that's our ride." He said.

A large white van pulled up to the curb, the Hispanic driver stepping out and introducing himself as Victor.

"I was expecting a limo." Beast Boy quipped.

"Or at least a Porsche." Cyborg chimed in.

Victor laughed politely.

"I'm afraid we were fresh out of those, but I can promise that the Jumpy here can get you where you need to go faster than any limousine ever could."

The team piled their stuff into the spacious trunk of the van and clambered inside, Cyborg sitting up front to avoid any cramped discomfort.

Raven took the middle window seat so she would have something to watch. She would have read her book, but she was saving that for later tonight.

Unfortunately, the scenery was less than entertaining. The highway was surrounded by a bunch of empty brown fields, with the occasional pasture housing some overweight cows meandering about.

She looked away and chose instead to listen to the others swap a few jokes.

About half-an-hour later, Victor turned the van off of the freeway and entered a country road.

"Where did they say this place was?" Cyborg inquired.

"They said the lodge had a rustic feel to it." Robin said, looking around at the rapidly disappearing urban influence.

"Did they say 'rustic' or 'redneck?'" Raven chaffed.

Starfire made a confused expression.

"Red necks?" she inquired.

"Yeah, you know, just like brown noses, green thumbs, purple hearts…" Beast Boy teased.

"I fear I will never understand the attributions of parts of the human body to color." Starfire confessed.

"You and me both, Star." Beast Boy replied.

The van pulled up to a large, old fashioned country house that sat in a clearing.

"Oh, this is nice!" Starfire said, charmed by the establishment's appearance.

"I wonder if they actually have electricity…" Raven murmured under her breath.

Victor stopped the car and opened the doors, the Titans hopping out and getting their things from the trunk. Raven had just slung her bag over her shoulder when she felt something push her. She turned to find a large, slimy pink tongue ready to greet her face.

"_Shep! Down, boy!_"

The droopy-faced bloodhound immediately relented, obediently plopping down onto his rear, tail still wagging. Beast Boy greeted the dog with a hearty "Hey, buddy!" and began scratching his ears, the dog finding a new friend to lick. Raven wiped the saliva off of her face with the back of her hand, frowning mightily.

"You'll have to forgive Shep, Miss. He's got a weakness for girls your age."

Raven saw a large man coming down off of the front porch. Looking to be in his mid-sixties, he had a bushy white moustache and a large brown cowboy hat on.

"Mr. Larson?" Robin inquired.

"Son, Mr. Larson was my Father's name. You can call me Big Bill." The man gave Robin's hand a firm shake.

"I have to say, I consider it a privilege that five of the most spectacular kids in the country chose my lodge to stay in." Big Bill said, putting a hand over his heart.

(Like we chose.) Raven thought. She flinched when she felt Shep bump her hand with his snout, and she reluctantly tapped her palm on his fuzzy head.

"Well, if y'all are ready to go, I'll show you your rooms."

The Titans followed Big Bill into the lodge, Shep curiously following them through the main room and up the stairs.

"Y'all will be at the top of the stairs here." He said, opening the door to a spacious suite.

"We've got a queen sized bed in the main room, and two rooms off to the side. The couch folds out, and that TV there gets cable." Beast Boy gave a small pump of his fist and whispered "Yesss."

"I'll leave it up to you to decide who sleeps where, but there's enough room for all of y'all. If you need anything, just holler. Lunch is in an hour."

And with that, Big Bill exited, Shep hurrying off with him after a quick snap of his fingers. Raven stepped to one of the doors and opened the door to look inside. The only window had thick purple curtains that blocked out any traces of the sun if used properly.

"This one's mine." She said flatly.

No one bothered arguing with her, since they all knew how much the sorceress valued both privacy and faint lighting. The others divvied up the rest of the arrangements, Starfire ending up with the other room and the three boys getting the large center one.

Raven closed the door to her room and put her bag at the foot of the bed. She removed her hood and ran her fingers through her hair. Of _course _they had to have a dog. Raven was like a magnet when it came to dogs, something about her made them crazy. She was never a dog person to begin with, but her patience had long since run out after a few too many brainless furballs had nearly tackled her to the ground.

She sat herself upon her new bed, the quilted sheets being a foreign feeling against her palms. At least the mattress was reasonably comfortable. Nothing came close to her bed back at the Tower, though.

Already feeling a little homesick, she unzipped her bag and took out her things. She was a light packer, bringing along clothes, essential hygienic products, a book or two, some finger-food just in case, and extremely subtle make-up and perfume if it was to be a formal outing. This wasn't, so she didn't worry herself with those. She carefully put everything into its appropriate location. When that was done, she took out her novel and switched on the bedside lamp, which was a little bright for her taste, but it worked, laid herself down, and continued reading.

About a quarter of an hour later, she heard a knock on the door. She grunted irately to herself and stood up, opening the door a crack and peering out.

"What?"

She was met with Beast Boy's eye staring back at her.

"Hey, Rae. I, um… have a request."

"If it involves leaving this room, the answer is no."

"You're in luck." Beast Boy said brightly. "I was just wondering, if you didn't mind, could I crash with you tonight?"

"Any particular reason?"

Beast Boy scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, the, uh, fold-out couch has this pole thing running down the middle and it hurts my back."

Raven remained silent for a moment. Her gut reaction was to say no, since they were in such close proximity to her teammates, but thinking more carefully about it, having her boyfriend next to her might help her feel a little more comfortable about this place.

"Right now, I'd like to be left alone. But I might consider it later. Tell the others and the deal is void."

"Gotcha. See you in a little while."

And with that, he exited. Raven closed the door. She honestly admired his patience when it came to matters like this. He was always gracious when she wanted solitude, and very rarely argued with her when she denied his requests for affection. These denials were becoming less and less frequent, now that she thought about it.

Their relationship functioned off of a 'reward system;' Raven's affection was directly proportional to the quality of his behavior. If he was good, she rewarded him with an arm around the shoulders, a good night kiss, or something similar (she recently discovered that he enjoyed being petted, too.) But if he was rude or insensitive, she would give him the cold shoulder or whack him with something. Although he claimed that such a system was somewhat subservient and passive-aggressive, it worked for both of them.

This whole sharing a bed business had gotten started about a month ago, back in July. The two of them had decided to spend the night with one another to ease their mutual stress after dealing with the emotional wrecking ball that was Anton Scissors for the first time. It went better than expected, and Raven found the experience to be a healing one. She had kept a firm quota on the amount of times they could rest together afterword, but this was less because she didn't enjoy it and more because she didn't want to enjoy it too much. Nothing ruined a good thing faster than excess.

She realized that she had been thinking about this while she was supposed to be reading, and had just read the words on the page without taking any of them in. Shaking her head, she went back to her novel.

She chose to skip lunch. She was neither hungry nor in the mood for social interaction. Inevitably, her stomach began demanding sustenance in the form of an irritating crescendo of growls. She took a Granola bar and began reluctantly eating it, just to shut her stomach up.

Hours passed, and Raven startled herself when she finished her book. Had it really been that short? She needed to start bulking up. Wearily rubbing her eyes, she placed the book on the nightstand and stretched. Her lithe form was grateful to move again, as evidenced by the pops and cracks given off by her joints.

She heard laughter in the next room, and figured it was about time to leave her nest. She opened the door, the bright light of the next room causing her to squint briefly.

"She lives!"

Beast Boy, who sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, raised his arms in the air and gave her a theatrical smile. Cyborg laid on the bed, dimly raised a hand in greeting, not taking his eyes off of the television program he was watching.

"Har har." Raven strode over to him and sat down. It took her a second to realize that they were the only ones in the room.

"Any idea where the others went?" she inquired.

"Starfire's showering, and I think Robin's practicing his speech for Monday."

Raven felt her stomach drop.

"Oh, God… did we need to prepare a speech?"

"No, but Robin's doing one anyway." Beast Boy replied. "You know him, always the windbag."

Raven should have felt relief, but was instead perturbed by the event coming up the day after tomorrow once again.

She looked at Beast Boy, who had gone back to watching television. He noticed her staring out of the corner of his eye and turned to meet her gaze.

"Something bugging you?" he asked, concerned.

Raven had to think for a moment.

"How… do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Talk… talk to hundreds of people you don't know."

Beast Boy's eyes lit up as he understood.

"Well, I think it would help if I knew what was making you so nervous."

Raven felt her cheeks darken once again. She was well aware of her faults, but admitting them was extremely demeaning. Plus, she always felt like she was projecting her problems onto someone else when she should be taking care of them herself.

Her boyfriend's sincere face was a reassuring signal, certainly, but this was still going to be hugely embarrassing.

"It's… I…"

"Take your time."

Raven thought for a good half-minute before finally coming up with a phrase that sounded reasonable.

"I'm afraid of freezing up, and having all these eyes on me expecting me to say something."

Nope, that still sounded foolish.

"Why would you freeze up?" Beast Boy queried gently.

"I…I don't know… if I just run out of things to say, or there's a question I can't answer."

"Raven, here's the thing. No one's expecting you to go up there and recite the Gettysburg Address. Don't think of it as some kind of assignment that you can get a failing grade on. If you don't know how to answer a question, just say so, but be funny about it. Lord knows I don't have the answer to every question. So I just laugh it off."

"But I'm not funny." Raven said shortly.

"Oh, yes you are!" Beast Boy protested. "You've just got a more deadpan sense of humor then the rest of us."

He put an arm around her shoulders.

"If you start off by saying something like 'I'm Raven, and I'm the world's worst public speaker,' everyone'll love it! 'Cause that's who you are. If you gave some flowery mumbo-jumbo, people would be like 'she's trying too hard.' The trick to talking to other people is to not hide behind anything. Just tell it how it really is."

Raven respected his advice, but still felt uneasy.

"If you start to feel nervous, just say so. Everyone knows you're not very social, if you just show them what you're really like, they'll respect you so much more for being honest."

He tightened his grip.

"Does that help?"

Raven shrugged, but gave him a half-smile.

"I suppose. Thank you." She rested her head on his shoulder.

"No problem at all, Mama."

His odds for tonight were looking good.

***A/N* I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a huge fan of TTG, but I love the fact that Beast Boy calls Raven 'Mama.' Anyway, next chapter will be up at some point, as soon as I get college junk done with. Stay tuned! *A/N* **


	15. Welcome to Nowhere: Part 2

***A/N* I return! This chapter was delayed mainly due to college work, but I think you'll like it. It's a bit shorter than the last one, but you know what they say, less is more, right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I'm really looking forward to writing the final chapter, it's gonna be a doozy! *A/N***

Just because Raven disliked dogs didn't mean she was unaware of how to please them.

She had picked up on how to keep them from jumping all over her a while ago, whether it was tossing a ball or giving them a pat on the head. Such knowledge was practically common sense. Give a dog what they want, and they'll calm down enough to give you some space.

Strangely enough, such tactics worked for her relationship as well.

Whenever Beast Boy grew too rowdy around her, all she really had to do was give him a scratch behind the ears. It was fascinating how effective it could be; he could be flipping out over a video game score or flustered with a difficult task, it didn't matter. A finger behind each ear and some friction turned him to pudding. Even though she wouldn't say it aloud, he became quite adorable whenever this happened, often rolling his head around so she could get at every part of his scalp and pushing gently against her palm. All he needed to do was purr and the picture would be completed.

She didn't only use this as a pacifying mechanism. She had found it to be an effective means of showing affection or rewarding him for exceptional behavior. She only did so in private, of course, as the others would never let either of them hear the end of it. It was a personal little treat that she enjoyed just as much as he did.

Raven thought about all of this as she lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling with one hand stroking Beast Boy's hair. He had fallen asleep ages ago, falling prey to her hypnotic scratching hook, line, and sinker. She sort of wished she hadn't done it, because now she didn't have anything distracting her.

As encouraging as Beast Boy's words had been, the fear sticking to her remained tighter than superglue. Plan or no, she was still going to have to speak to hundreds of strangers and answer their questions, and that prospect loomed over her, licking its lips.

Fame had never been her muse. She grew uneasy when the waiter asked her what she wanted to drink with dinner, reporters hounding her with questions was living Hell. Even those with pure intentions, like fans of hers (what little there were) or police officers seemed like they were judging her.

Maybe this was for the best. She couldn't hide behind her hood all of her life, there were seven billion people on the planet, she had to extend her boundaries beyond only four. She had once read a bumper sticker that read 'Your wildest dreams are just outside your comfort zone.' Granted, that had been next to an 'I brake for Zombies' emblem, but that was beside the point. And most of the people she had met outside of the Tower had been delightful when she got to know them, so she knew that there were fruits to such labor.

…But couldn't she ease her way into it instead of diving headfirst?

She rolled over and wrapped her arms around Beast Boy, still asleep. It was happening, she had to do it, and there was nothing she could do to back out now. Whether she faced it with her head held high or with her tail between her legs, it was coming. She squeezed her big Teddy Bear for safety.

The next day, she almost regretted skipping lunch previously, because breakfast was delicious. The Titans were served a warm cranberry torte with fruit salad, eggs, and sausage. There was enough on the table for everyone, even Cyborg, who was usually still hungry after most meals thanks to his ravenous appetite. But everyone left the table satisfied and in high spirits.

Raven ran into Shep the bloodhound on her way back to the suite. The dog was elated to see her again, and came to her side almost immediately.

"Hello again, fleabag." Raven muttered, reluctantly scratching his head to keep from being slobbered on, and retreated up the stairs.

She sighed with relief after narrowly avoiding what could have become her second shower for the day, and opened the door to her room.

She found Beast Boy sitting on her bedspread. But that wasn't what surprised her. He was actually leafing through one of her novels. He jumped when he saw her.

"Oh! Uh, hey Rae…" he greeted, swiftly placing the book back onto her nightstand. Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, this?" Beast Boy pointed to the book. "I wasn't really reading it, I was just, you know…"

"No…" Raven said, a half-smile creeping up her face. "No, I don't know. Could you explain, please?"

Beast Boy gulped.

"See, I didn't really have anything else to do, there's nothing on TV right now, and my MP3 needs to charge, and…"

He eventually relented, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm bored, and I wanted to do something with you."

Raven came and sat down with him.

"So, you, Beast Boy, the same Beast Boy who putrefies his brain daily with flashing lights and graphics, the same Beast Boy who will only read dialogue if its presented with gaudy artwork and gross overuse of onomatopoeias, the same Beast Boy who once referred to Edgar Allen Poe as 'the crow guy,' suddenly wants to read John Steinbeck?"

Beast Boy's cheeks flushed a darker shade of green.

"Maybe not the whole thing, just a little…"

Raven took the book from him.

"Be honest, were you actually going to read this, or were you just doing it get my attention?" she said, raising the paperback novel in the air for reference.

Beast Boy shrugged again.

"I don't know…"

Raven allowed herself a small chuckle, and scooted backwards onto her pillow, crossing her legs.

"Well, ploy or not, now you have to follow through." She patted the mattress beside her. "Sit."

Beast Boy blinked.

"What?"

"Sit." Raven insisted. "You wanted to read it, so you're going to read it."

Beast Boy raised a finger in inquiry.

"Like… the whole thing?"

"We'll see. Sit."

Beast Boy crossed his arms and thought for a moment. Raven figured he was trying to come up with a way to weasel out of the mess he had gotten himself into, but to her astonishment, he smiled.

"Alright, fine. But only if you read it to me."

Now it was Raven's turn to think.

"If I do, I'll need something to drink. And don't expect me to do any ridiculous character voices, this isn't a Kindergarten class."

Beast Boy told her to hold on a second, and left the room, returning with a full glass of water. He placed it on the nightstand and hopped up onto the mattress beside her.

"Preach it to me, Mama." He said challengingly, resting a chin on her shoulder.

Raven, even though she kept her face flat, was actually quite excited. She knew Beast Boy wasn't going to enjoy this as much as her, but she was pleased that he was even willing to give it a try. Clearing her throat, she opened the book to the title page and began.

"_The Pearl_, by John Steinbeck. Kino awakened in the near dark…"

Beast Boy was a surprisingly good listener, becoming quite invested in the story as Raven read it to him. He was relieved when the child recovered from his scorpion sting, and began adding color commentary to Raven's narration. Raven grew slowly more enthusiastic about narrating the story as well, adding touches of emotion to heavier scenes and providing more inflection to the dialogue.

The two of them jumped when Cyborg opened up the door after a few hours had passed.

"Uh… soup's on." He said, looking from Beast Boy to Raven.

"You know, Dude, there's a thing called knocking. You should look into it." Beast Boy chided, hopping off of the bed.

"Uh huh…" Cyborg still didn't quite understand what he had witnessed, but decided against asking, since neither party would tell him the truth, if anything at all.

When all of the Titans filed downstairs and sat themselves down at the table, Robin clinked a fork against his empty glass to get his friends' attention.

"So, I e-mailed the principal about tomorrow, and she said we should arrive at the school around 11:00 in the morning. And this whole thing is going to be a Q&A type deal."

"So, why are you preparing a speech, then? Already know what they're gonna ask, huh?" Beast Boy goaded. Robin frowned at him, and nodded to Raven, who complied and slapped him on the back of the head.

"Just askin', Dude." Beast Boy said with a mischievous grin, rubbing the point of impact.

"A-nyway, they also issued the order in which we're going."

"They're pickin' the order for us?" Cyborg inquired.

"Probably to manage time more efficiently." Robin surmised.

Raven felt a flicker of fear.

"So… who's going first?" she asked, hiding the waver in her voice.

"I am." Robin said matter-of-factly. "Didn't even ask. And then it goes to Starfire."

Starfire raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Happy day! I look forward to it!" she chirped.

Robin nodded. "Then comes Cyborg, followed by Raven, and ending with Beast Boy."

Beast Boy grinned. "Saving the best for last. Typical."

Raven normally would have kicked him in the shin for such a comment, but she was busy reveling in her luck. Fourth. Fourth was good. Fourth gave her time.

Cyborg had begun serving himself some food. "Sounds good to me. And at least we know that our audience is gonna be respectful. Rich-school kids actually know how to listen."

"When they aren't counting the money in their trust fund." Beast Boy quipped, eliciting a few laughs from around the table.

"Come on, be nice." Robin said, with a small smile. "I mean, _someone's _gotta bathe in all those gold coins, right?"

Raven was still lost in thought, and barely noticed when Starfire offered her a bowl full of fluffy white food.

"Potatoes, Raven?" She resorted to verbal inquiry when Raven didn't respond.

"Uh, yes, thank you." Raven said quickly, realizing that she was ignoring her friend and taking the bowl.

Beast Boy noticed her flighty behavior. Remembering her confession from yesterday, he placed a hand just above her knee under the table. Raven flinched at the gentle touch, and looked into Beast Boy's eyes with mild alarm.

"Be yourself." He mouthed, no sound being produced by his lips. Raven gave a half-smile and passed the food along to him, but inside, she said something to herself.

(That's what I'm afraid of.)

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventful, Beast Boy choosing to keep Raven company to keep her mind off of things. Raven was honestly surprised that Beast Boy was enjoying the story. She had originally planned to make him read it as punishment, but it had turned into an all-day affair.

But something remarkable happened at dusk. After supper that evening, the two of them agreed to finish up the book, since they had spent most of the day reading it and it was shorter than average. Beast Boy listened intently to what was happening and audibly gasped when they reached the climax and the child of the main characters, Coyotito, was accidently shot and killed.

"The shawl was crusted with dried blood, and the bundle swayed a little as she walked. Her face was hard and lined and leathery with fatigue and with the tightness-"

"Stop."

Raven paused mid-sentence at this jarring request. Beast Boy had only interrupted the story once so he could use the restroom, even then he did so very politely and at a stopping point. What had prompted such a sudden break in the flow?

When she lowered the book, she got her answer.

Beast Boy had a hand up to his mouth and had bitten down on one of his fingers. His eyes had grown glossy and red, and his brow had contorted into an expression of conspicuous sadness.

"Just stop. I don't want to hear any more." He demanded, his voice raw and wavering.

"What…what's the matter?" Raven asked.

Moisture pooled up in Beast Boy's eyes as he shook his head.

"What a stupid ending." He declared.

"Garfield, are you…?"

A tear leaked from one of his eyes as he clenched his fists.

Raven couldn't believe it. The book had actually made her boyfriend cry.

"Why would anyone end a story like that?" Beast Boy demanded. "'Hey guys, I got an idea, let's go and kill off a toddler!' Who came up with something that…"

He glared when he saw Raven smiling.

"Cut it out! This isn't funny!" Another tear fell, and he rubbed it away hastily.

Raven put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not laughing at you, Garfield, I'm not laughing at all. I'm pleasantly surprised."

"About what?!"

"I didn't think the novel would affect you this much, that's all." Raven said. Beast Boy lost his glare and let his lower lip tremble for a few moments before falling into Raven's arms, who caught him hastily.

"It-it just isn't fair…" Beast Boy began full on crying into her shoulder, and Raven, still alarmed, rubbed his back to comfort him.

"It's only a story, Gar. Pull yourself together."

After about a minute of sobbing, Beast Boy retracted, sniffling and rubbing his eyes and nose.

"D-don't tell the others about this…" he pleaded.

"I won't." Raven assured.

Beast Boy looked down at the novel that had elicited this reaction out of him.

"What a pointless book…" he spat.

"Not all stories end happily, Garfield. Life doesn't work that way. If anything, it speaks to the consequences of greed. That's what Steinbeck wanted to show, do you understand?"

Beast Boy frowned.

"I guess, but he went for a cheap shock to show it."

"A cheap shock that was poignant enough to make you cry." Raven rebutted gently.

Beast Boy gave a half-smile before sniffing and wiping his eyes again.

"If we ever do this again, I don't want to read anything like this."

Raven felt her heart skip.

"You'd like to do this again?"

"If no kids get shot." Beast Boy said firmly. "It helps you talk to other people, doesn't it?"

Realization dawned on Raven. She…really had spoken aloud to someone else, hadn't she? And she had been engaged enough to affect her audience. This whole thing had been a warm-up for tomorrow, and she had passed with flying colors.

"Do you feel any better about talking to the kids tomorrow?" Beast Boy asked.

"I…I actually do."

***A/N* I actually never read The Pearl, I was subjected to Where The Red Fern Grows and The Giver instead. The Giver is the only medium that disturbed me enough to make me cry, but if I had read this story at that age, I probably would have had the same reaction as Beast Boy. Anyway, I'm excited about the final chapter, and I hope it delivers. See you next time! *A/N***


End file.
